1 Master Kao said: “The nature of things is like willow wood, and Duty is like cups and bowls. Shaping human nature into Humanity and Duty is like shaping willow wood into cups and bowls.”
“Do you follow the nature of willow wood to shape cups and bowls,” replied Mencius, “or do you maul it? If you maul willow wood to make cups and bowls, then I guess you maul human nature to make Humanity and Duty. It’s talk like yours that will lead people to ravage Humanity and Duty throughout all beneath Heaven.”
2 Master Kao said: “The nature of things is like swirling water: channel it east and it flows east, channel it west and it flows west. And human nature too is like water: it doesn’t choose between good and evil any more than water chooses between east and west.”
“It’s true that water doesn’t choose between east and west,” replied Mencius, “but doesn’t it choose between high and low? Human nature is inherently good, just like water flows inherently downhill. There’s no such thing as a person who isn’t good, just as there’s no water that doesn’t flow downhill.
“Think about water: if you slap it, you can make it jump over your head; and if you push and shove, you can make it stay on a mountain. But what does this have to do with the nature of water? It’s only responding to the forces around it. It’s like that for people too: you can make them evil, but that says nothing about human nature.”
3 Master Kao said: “The nature of things means that which is inborn.”
“The nature of things means that which is inborn,” repeated Mencius. “Just like white means that which is white?”
“Yes.”
“So is the whiteness of a white feather the same as the whiteness of white snow? And is the whiteness of white snow the same as the whiteness of white jade?”
“Yes.”
“Then is the nature of a dog the same as the nature of an ox? And is the nature of an ox the same as the nature of a human?”
4 Master Kao said: “Hunger for food and sex – that is nature. Then there’s Humanity, which is internal not external; and Duty, which is external not internal.”
“Why do you say Humanity is internal and Duty is external?” asked Mencius.
“Suppose there was an elder and I treated him with the honor due an elder,” replied Master Kao, “it isn’t because the honor due elders is somehow within me. It’s like seeing something white as white: the whiteness is outside us. That’s why I call Duty external.”
“The whiteness of a white horse is no different from the whiteness of a white-haired person,” said Mencius. “But doesn’t the elderliness of an elderly horse mean something quite different to us than the elderliness of an elderly person? And which are you equating with Duty – the elder or the one who treats him with the honor due an elder?”
“I love my own brother, but not the brother of someone in Ch’in,” said Master Kao, “so the reason lies within me, which is why I call Humanity internal. But I treat elders as elders, whether they’re from Ch’u or my own family: so the reason lies within elderliness, which is why I call Duty external.”
“But my enjoyment of roast meat is the same,” countered Mencius, “whether I cooked it or someone from Ch’in cooked it. And it’s like this for many things. So does that mean the enjoyment of roast meat is external?”
5 Adept Meng Chi asked Adept Kung-tu: “Why do you say Duty is internal?”
“I call it internal,” replied Kung-tu, “because it’s our reverence put into action.”
“If someone in your village is a year older than your eldest brother, which do you revere?”
“My brother.”
“In pouring wine, which do you serve first?”
“The village elder.”
“First you treat this one with reverence, then you treat that one with the honor due an elder. So Duty derives from the external, not the internal.”
Adept Kung-tu had no answer to this. Later, when he told Mencius what had happened, Mencius said: “Ask him which he reveres most, an uncle or a younger brother, and he’ll say An uncle. Ask him which he reveres most, an uncle or a younger brother who’s posing as the ancestral dead at a sacrifice, and he’ll say A younger brother. Then ask what happened to his reverence for the uncle, and he’ll say It’s because of the younger brother’s position. Then you can say: If reverence is a matter of position, lasting reverence belongs to my elder brother, while fleeting reverence belongs to the village elder.”
When Adept Meng Chi heard this, he said: “I treat an uncle with reverence as reverence is due him, and I treat a younger brother with reverence as reverence is due him. So Duty derives from the external, not the internal.”
“In winter we drink broth,” commented Adept Kung-tu, “and in summer we drink water. Does that mean drinking and eating derive from the external?”
6 Adept Kung-tu said: “Master Kao says: Human nature isn’t good, and it isn’t evil. There are others who say: Human nature can be made good, and it can be made evil. That’s why the people loved goodness when Wen and Wu ruled, and they loved cruelty when Yu and Li ruled. And there are still others who say: Human nature is inborn: some people are good and some evil. That’s why a Hsiang could have Yao as his ruler, a Shun could have Blind Purblind as his father, a Lord Ch’i of Wei and Prince Pi Kan could have the tyrant Chou as their nephew and sovereign.
“But you say: Human nature is good. Does that mean all the others are wrong?”
“We are, by constitution, capable of being good,” replied Mencius. “That’s what I mean by good. If someone’s evil, it can’t be blamed on inborn capacities. We all have a heart of compassion and a heart of conscience, a heart of reverence and a heart of right and wrong. In a heart of compassion is Humanity, and in a heart of conscience is Duty. In a heart of reverence is Ritual, and in a heart of right and wrong is wisdom. Humanity, Duty, Ritual, wisdom – these are not external things we meld into us. They’re part of us from the beginning, though we may not realize it. Hence the saying: What you seek you will find, and what you ignore you will lose. Some make more of themselves than others, maybe two or five or countless times more. But that’s only because some people fail to realize their inborn capacities.
“The Songs say:
Heaven gave birth to humankind,
and whatever is has its own laws:
cleaving to what makes us human,
people delight in stately Integrity.
Of this, Confucius said: Whoever wrote this song knew the Way well. So whatever is must have its own laws, and whenever they cleave to what makes us human, the people must delight in stately Integrity.”
7 Mencius said: “In good years, young men are mostly fine. In bad years, they’re mostly cruel and violent. It isn’t that Heaven endows them with such different capacities, only that their hearts are mired in such different situations. Think about barley: if you plant the seeds carefully at the same time and in same place, they’ll all sprout and grow ripe by summer solstice. If they don’t grow the same – it’s because of inequities in richness of soil, amounts of rainfall, or the care given them by farmers. And so, all members belonging to a given species of thing are the same. Why should humans be the lone exception? The sage and I – surely we belong to the same species of thing.
“That’s why Master Lung said: Even if a cobbler makes a pair of sandals for feet he’s never seen, he certainly won’t make a pair of baskets. Sandals are all alike because feet are the same throughout all beneath Heaven. And all tongues savor the same flavors. Yi Ya was just the first to discover what our tongues savor. If taste differed by nature from person to person, the way horses and dogs differ by species from me, then how is it people throughout all beneath Heaven savor the tastes Yi Ya savored? People throughout all beneath Heaven share Yi Ya’s tastes, therefore people’s tongues are alike throughout all beneath Heaven.
“It’s true for the ear too: people throughout all beneath Heaven share Maestro K’uang’s sense of music, therefore people’s ears are alike thoughout all beneath Heaven. And it’s no less true for the eye: no one throughout all beneath Heaven could fail to see the beauty of Lord Tu. If you can’t see his beauty, you simply haven’t eyes.
“Hence it is said: All tongues savor the same flavors, all ears hear the same music, and all eyes see the same beauty. Why should the heart alone not be alike in us all? But what is it about our hearts that is alike? Isn’t it what we call reason and Duty? The sage is just the first to discover what is common to our hearts. Hence, reason and Duty please our hearts just like meat pleases our tongues.”
8 Mencius said: “The forests were once lovely on Ox Mountain. But as they were near a great city, axes cleared them little by little. Now there’s nothing left of their beauty. They rest day and night, rain and dew falling in plenty, and there’s no lack of fresh sprouts. But people graze oxen and sheep there, so the mountain’s stripped bare. When people see how bare it is, they think that’s all the potential it has. But does that mean this is the nature of Ox Mountain?
“Without the heart of Humanity and Duty alive in us, how can we be human? When we abandon this noble heart, it’s like cutting those forests: a few axe blows each day, and pretty soon there’s nothing left. Then you can rest day and night, take in the clarity of morning’s healing ch’i – but the values that make you human keep thinning away. All day long, you’re tangled in your life. If these tangles keep up day after day, even the clarity of night’s healing ch’i isn’t enough to preserve you. And if the clarity of night’s healing ch’i isn’t enough to preserve you, you aren’t much different from an animal. When people see you’re like an animal, they think that’s all the potential you have. But does that mean this is the human constitution?
“With proper sustenance, anything will grow; and without proper sustenance, anything will fade away. Confucius said: Embrace it and it endures. Forsake it and it dies. It comes and goes without warning, and no one knows its route. He was speaking of the heart.”
9 Mencius said: “Don’t make the mistake of thinking the emperor lacks intelligence. Even the most vigorous plant in all beneath Heaven cannot grow if given sun for a day then left to freeze for ten. I very rarely see the emperor, and as soon as I leave, a crowd shows up to freeze him some more. So even if a new sprout appeared, what could I do?
“Go is surely a minor art, but if you don’t give it your single-minded devotion you’ll never master it. GoAutumnal is the finest player in all the land. But suppose he tries to teach the game to two people. One listens intently, studying with single-minded devotion. The other listens, but he’s dreaming of swans in flight, the heft of bow and tethered arrow, the shot. Although he studies beside the first, he’ll never be anywhere near as good. Is that because he’s less intelligent? Not at all.”
10 Mencius said: “I want fish, and I also want bear paws. If I can’t have both, I’ll give up fish and take bear paws. I want life, and I also want Duty. If I can’t have both, I’ll give up life and take Duty. I want life – but there’s something I want more than life, so I won’t do something wrong just to stay alive. I loathe death – but there’s something I loathe more than death, so there are disasters I won’t avoid.
“If you want nothing more than life, you’ll do anything to stay alive. If you loathe nothing more than death, then you’ll do anything to avoid disasters. But there are things people won’t do to stay alive, and there are things people won’t do to avoid disasters. So there must be something we want more than life, and something we loathe more than death. And it isn’t something that only a sage’s heart possesses: everyone has it. It’s just that a sage never loses it.
“A basket of rice, a bowl of soup: to take them means life, to leave them means death. If they’re offered with threats and abuse, a wayfarer won’t accept them. If they’re trampled on, even a beggar won’t bother with them. But people accept ten thousand measures of grain as salary without even asking if they’re violating Ritual or Duty. What could ten thousand measures of grain mean to me? A beautiful house? The esteem of wife and mistress? The gratitude of friends in need? If I refused to accept something even to save my life, am I now to accept it for a beautiful house, for the esteem of wife and mistress, for the gratitude of friends in need? Can’t these people stop themselves? They’re throwing away their original heart. There’s no other way to describe it.”
11 Mencius said: “Humanity is the heart, and Duty the road. To stop following the road and abandon it, to let the heart wander away and not know enough to search for it – what a sad sad thing. When chickens or dogs wander away, people know enough to search for them, but when their heart wanders away they don’t. The Way of learning is nothing other than this: searching for the heart that’s wandered away.”
12 Mencius said: “Suppose your fourth finger were gnarled and crooked, though not lame or painful. If there was someone who could straighten it, you’d think nothing of traveling all the way from Ch’in to Ch’u. That’s because your finger isn’t as good as other people’s fingers.
“When your finger isn’t as good as other people’s fingers, you know enough to resent it. But when your heart isn’t as good, you don’t know enough to resent it. That’s what I call not knowing what is what.”
13 Mencius said: “Consider a young tree, an wu-t’ung or tzu: anyone who wants to keep it alive knows how to nurture it. Meanwhile they don’t know how to nurture themselves. How can they love a tree more than themselves? This is thoughtlessness at its worst.”
14 Mencius said: “People love all aspects of themselves equally. Loving them all equally, people nurture them all equally. When there isn’t an inch of their flesh that they don’t love, there isn’t an inch they don’t nurture. There’s only one way to know if people are good or evil: look at the choices they make. We each contain precious and worthless, great and small. Never injure the great for the sake of the small, or the precious for the sake of the worthless. Small people nurture what is small in them; great people nurture what is great in them.
“Consider a gardener who nurtures the scraggly sour-plum and date-bramble, but neglects the magnificent wu-t’ung and chia – that’s a worthless gardener indeed. If you neglect shoulder and back to nurture a finger, and don’t even realize what you’re doing, you’re nothing but a reckless wolf. And if you’re obsessed with food and drink, you’ll be scorned as worthless because you’re nurturing the small and neglecting the great. Even if you neglect nothing else in your obsession with food and drink, you’ve let your mouth and belly become so much more than just another inch of flesh.”
15 Adept Kung-tu asked: “If we’re all equally human, how is it some are great and some small?”
“Great people abide by what is great in them;” replied Mencius, “small people abide by what is small in them.”
“If we’re all equally human, how is it some abide by what is great in them and some abide by what is small in them?”
“The senses cannot think, and so ear and eye are easily deceived by things. And things interact together, which only makes it worse. It is the heart which thinks, and so understands. Without thought there is no understanding. Heaven has given us these two things: heart and senses. If you insist from the beginning on what is great in you, what is small cannot steal it away. This is what makes a person great without fail.”
16 Mencius said: “There is the nobility of Heaven on the one hand, and human nobility on the other. Humanity, Duty, loyalty, sincerity, tireless delight in the virtuous – such is the nobility of Heaven. Duke, counselor, minister – such is human nobility.
“The ancients cultivated the nobility of Heaven, and human nobility followed naturally. Today people cultivate the nobility of Heaven only out of desire for human nobility. And once they win human nobility, they abandon the nobility of Heaven. This is delusion at its worst, and such people come to nothing but ruin in the end. “
17 Mencius said: “The heart we all share longs to be exalted. But the exalted is already there in us, though we may not realize it. What people exalt is not the truly exalted. What some mighty lord exalts today, he may scorn as worthless tomorrow.
“The Songs say
we’ve drunk deep your wine
and feasted on your Integrity,
meaning that if you feast on Humanity and Duty, you don’t long for the lavish flavors of sumptuous meat and millet. And if you’re renowned far and wide, you don’t long for robes of elegant embroidery.”
18 Mencius said: “Humanity overcomes Inhumanity the way water overcomes fire. But when people wield Humanity these days, it’s like they’re throwing a cup of water on a cartload of burning firewood. When the fire keeps burning, they claim water can’t overcome fire. This is the promotion of Inhumanity at its worst, and such people come to nothing but ruin in the end.”
19 Mencius said: “The five grains are the finest of all plants. But if they don’t ripen, they aren’t even as good as wild rice-grass. For Humanity too – the essential thing is that it ripens well.”
20 Mencius said: “Yi always shot from a full draw when teaching archery, and his students also shot from a full draw. A master carpenter always uses a compass and square when he teaches, and his students also use a compass and square.”