Gaozi, Part One告子上

Gaozi said, "Nature is like the willow, and rightness is like a wooden cup. To make benevolence and rightness out of human nature is like making a wooden cup out of the willow."

Mencius said, "Do you make a wooden cup by following the nature of the willow, or do you cut and carve the willow and then make the cup? If you cut and carve the willow to make a wooden cup, will you then cut and carve a man to make benevolence and rightness? What drives the men of all under heaven to make a disaster of benevolence and rightness will surely be your words."

Gaozi said, "Nature is like swirling water. Open it to the east and it flows east; open it to the west and it flows west. That human nature is not divided into good and not good is like water not being divided into east and west."

Mencius said, "Water is truly not divided into east and west, but is it not divided into up and down? The goodness of human nature is like water going downward. There is no man who is not good, and there is no water that does not go down.

Now strike this water and make it leap, and you can send it over a man's forehead. Dam it and drive it, and you can make it stay on a hill. But how is this the nature of water? It is the force that makes it so. That a man can be made to do what is not good — his nature is also like this."

Gaozi said, "What is born is called nature."

Mencius said, "Is calling what is born nature like calling what is white white?"

"It is."

"Is the whiteness of white feathers like the whiteness of white snow, and the whiteness of white snow like the whiteness of white jade?"

"It is."

"Then is the nature of a dog like the nature of an ox, and the nature of an ox like the nature of a man?"

Gaozi said, "Food and the love of women are nature. Benevolence is within, not without. Rightness is without, not within."

Mencius said, "Why do you say that benevolence is within and rightness is without?"

"He is an elder and I treat him as an elder. It is not that the eldership is in me. It is like a thing being white and my calling it white, following its whiteness outside. So I call it without."

"That is different. The whiteness of a white horse is no different from the whiteness of a white man. But I do not know whether calling an old horse old is no different from treating an elder as an elder. And is it the elder that is rightness, or the treating him as an elder that is rightness?"

"If he is my younger brother I love him, and if he is the younger brother of a man of Qin I do not love him. Here the pleasure is taken from myself, so I call it within. I treat the elder of a man of Chu as an elder, and I treat my own elder as an elder. Here the pleasure is taken from the eldership, so I call it without."

"Liking the roast meat of a man of Qin is no different from liking my own roast meat. Among things too there are such cases. Then is liking roast meat also without?"

Meng Jizi asked Gongduzi, "Why do you say that rightness is within?"

"It is my own respect that I carry out, so I call it within."

"If a villager is a year older than your eldest brother, whom do you respect?"

"I respect my brother."

"When you pour the wine, whom do you serve first?"

"I pour for the villager first."

"The one you respect is here and the one you treat as an elder is there. So it is indeed without, and does not come from within."

Gongduzi could not answer, and he told Mencius of it.

Mencius said, "Ask him, 'Do you respect your uncle, or do you respect your younger brother?' He will say, 'I respect my uncle.' Then say, 'If your younger brother stands for the dead (尸童) in the rites, whom do you respect?' He will say, 'I respect my younger brother.' When you ask, 'Where then is your respect for your uncle?' he will say, 'It is because of the place he holds.' Then you too say, 'It is because of the place he holds.' The steady respect is for the elder brother, and the respect of the moment is for the villager."

Jizi heard this and said, "When it is the uncle, he respects; when it is the younger brother, he respects. So it is indeed without, and does not come from within."

Gongduzi said, "In winter we drink hot water, and in summer we drink cold water. Then are drinking and eating also without?"

Gongduzi said, "Gaozi says, 'In nature there is neither good nor not good.' Some say, 'Nature can be made good and can be made not good. So when King Wen and King Wu arose the people loved the good, and when King You and King Li arose the people loved cruelty.' Some say, 'There are natures that are good and natures that are not good. So with Yao for a ruler there was Xiang (象), with Gusou for a father there was Shun, and with Zhou Xin (紂) for the son of an elder brother and for a ruler as well there were Weizi Qi and Prince Bigan.' Now you say that nature is good. Then are all of those wrong?"

Mencius said, "Speaking of what it truly is, nature can be made good. This is what is meant by calling it good. As for becoming not good, that is no fault of what a man is born with.

The heart that aches for others, all men have it. The heart that is ashamed and hates evil, all men have it. The heart of respect, all men have it. The heart that tells right from wrong, all men have it. The heart that aches for others is benevolence. The heart that is ashamed and hates evil is rightness. The heart of respect is ritual. The heart that tells right from wrong is wisdom.

Benevolence and rightness and ritual and wisdom are not melted into me from outside. I have them from the first, only I do not think of them. So it is said, 'Seek and you get them, let go and you lose them.' Some men differ by twice or by five times, beyond all counting, and that is because they cannot use to the full what they were born with.

The Shi says, 'Heaven gives birth to the multitude of people. Where there is a thing there is a rule. This is the constant the people hold, and so they love this fine virtue.' Confucius said, 'The man who made this poem knew the Way! So where there is a thing there must be a rule, and since this is the constant the people hold, they love this fine virtue.'"

Mencius said, "In good years most young men are gentle, and in bad years most young men are violent. It is not that Heaven sent down natures so different. It is what drowns their hearts that makes them so.

Now sow barley and hoe it. If the ground is the same and the time of planting is the same, it springs up, and by the time of the summer solstice it is all ripe. If there is any difference, it is because the ground is rich or poor, and because the feeding of rain and dew and the work of men are not even.

So all things of one kind are alike. Why should we doubt it when we come to man alone? The sage too is of the same kind as I am.

So Longzi said, 'Though a man does not know the foot when he makes a shoe, I know he will not make a basket.' Shoes are alike because the feet of all under heaven are the same.

In taste the mouth has likings that are the same, and Yi Ya was the first to find what our mouths like. If the mouth in its taste had a nature different from other men's, as a dog or a horse is not of my kind, then why would all under heaven follow Yi Ya in taste? In taste all under heaven look to Yi Ya, and this is because the mouths of all under heaven are alike.

The ear is the same. In sound all under heaven look to Shi Kuang, and this is because the ears of all under heaven are alike.

The eye is the same. When it comes to Zidu (子都), there is no one under heaven who does not know his beauty. The man who does not know the beauty of Zidu has no eyes.

So it is said, 'In taste the mouth has likings that are the same. In sound the ear has hearings that are the same. In beauty the eye finds the same things fair.' When we come to the heart, is it alone in having nothing that is the same?

What is it that hearts hold in common? It is principle (理) and rightness (義). The sage was only the first to find what our hearts hold in common. So principle and rightness please my heart as meat pleases my mouth."

Mencius said, "The trees of Mount Niu (牛山) were once beautiful. But the hill lay on the edge of a great state, and axes cut the trees down. Could it stay beautiful?

With what grew there by night and by day, and with the moistening of rain and dew, buds were not wanting. But oxen and sheep came and grazed there as well, and so it is bare like that. Men see how bare it is and think there was never timber on it. How is this the nature of the hill?

Even in a man, how should there be no heart of benevolence and rightness? What makes him let go of his good heart is like the axes to the trees. Cut day after day, can it stay beautiful?

With what grows in him by night and by day, and with the clear air of dawn, what little there is in his likes and dislikes that comes near other men is fettered and destroyed by what he does in the daytime. Fetter it again and again, and the night air is not enough to keep it. When the night air is not enough to keep it, he is not far from the birds and beasts. Men see him like a bird or a beast and think there was never any stuff in him. How is this the truth of a man?

So if a thing gets its nourishment, there is nothing that does not grow. If it loses its nourishment, there is nothing that does not waste away. Confucius said, 'Hold it and it stays, let it go and it is gone. It comes and goes at no set time, and no one knows its home.' He must have meant the heart."

Mencius said, "Do not wonder that the king is not wise. Even with the easiest growing thing under heaven, if you warm it in the sun for one day and chill it for ten, nothing can grow.

I see him but seldom, and when I withdraw those who chill him arrive. Though a bud should start, what can I do!

Now the moves of go are a small art, yet a man does not get them unless he gives his whole heart and his whole will to it. Yi Qiu (弈秋) is the best player of go in the whole state. Let Yi Qiu teach two men to play. One gives his whole heart and his whole will and listens only to Yi Qiu. The other listens, but part of his heart thinks that wild geese and swans are about to come, and he thinks of drawing his bow and its corded arrow to shoot them. Though he learns beside the first man, he does not match him. Is this because his wit does not match? No, it is not."

Mencius said, "Fish is what I want, and bear's paw is also what I want. If I cannot have both, I give up the fish and take the bear's paw. Life is what I want, and rightness is also what I want. If I cannot have both, I give up life and take rightness.

Life is what I want, but there is what I want more than life, so I do not take it by shameful means. Death is what I hate, but there is what I hate more than death, so there is trouble I do not avoid.

If there were nothing a man wanted more than life, why would he not use every means of staying alive? If there were nothing a man hated more than death, why would he not do everything that avoids trouble?

Yet there are means of living that a man will not use, and there are ways of avoiding trouble that a man will not take. So there is what he wants more than life, and what he hates more than death. It is not the worthy man alone who has this heart. All men have it. The worthy man only keeps from losing it."

"A basket of rice and a bowl of soup: get them and you live, fail to get them and you die. Yet shout at a man as you give them, and even a traveler on the road will not take them. Kick them to him, and even a beggar will not stoop to them.

But a salary of ten thousand zhong is taken without asking about ritual and rightness. What does a salary of ten thousand zhong add to me? Is it for the beauty of a house, for the service of wives and concubines, for the thanks of poor men I know?

Before, he would not take it though he died for it, and now he takes it for the beauty of a house. Before, he would not take it though he died for it, and now he takes it for the service of wives and concubines. Before, he would not take it though he died for it, and now he takes it for the thanks of poor men he knows. Can this too not be stopped? This is what is called losing one's original heart."

Mencius said, "Benevolence is the heart of man, and rightness is the road of man. To leave the road and not go by it, to let the heart go and not know to seek it — how sad!

When a man loses a chicken or a dog he knows to seek it, but when he loses his heart he does not know to seek it. The Way of learning is nothing else. It is only to seek the heart one has let go."

Mencius said, "Suppose a man's nameless finger is bent and will not straighten. It does not hurt him and it does not get in the way of his work. Yet if there were someone who could straighten it, he would not think the road to Qin and Chu too far, because his finger is not like other men's.

When his finger is not like other men's he knows to hate it, but when his heart is not like other men's he does not know to hate it. This is what is called not knowing one kind from another."

Mencius said, "A paulownia or a catalpa of an armful or a handful — if a man truly wants it to live, he knows how to nourish it. But when it comes to his own body, he does not know how to nourish it. Does he love his body less than a paulownia or a catalpa? He fails to think, and badly so."

Mencius said, "A man loves his whole body, and loving the whole of it he nourishes the whole of it. There is not a foot or an inch of skin he does not love, and so there is not a foot or an inch of skin he does not nourish.

How else is his care judged good or bad? He takes the measure from himself, and that is all.

In the body there is the noble and the base, the small and the great. Do not harm the great with the small, and do not harm the noble with the base. He who nourishes the small part becomes a small man, and he who nourishes the great part becomes a great man.

Now if a gardener left his paulownia and catalpa and nourished his sour jujube and thorn, he would be a poor gardener. A man who nourishes one finger and loses his shoulder and back without knowing it is a man out of his senses.

A man who only eats and drinks is held cheap, because he nourishes the small and loses the great. If a man who eats and drinks loses nothing, how should his mouth and belly be no more than a foot or an inch of skin?"

Gongduzi asked, "Men are the same, yet one becomes a great man and another becomes a small man. Why is this?"

Mencius said, "He who follows the great part of himself becomes a great man, and he who follows the small part becomes a small man."

"Men are the same, yet one follows the great part and another follows the small part. Why is this?"

"The office of the ear and the eye is not to think, and they are blinded by things. When a thing meets a thing, it simply draws it away. The office of the heart is to think. Think and you get it, do not think and you do not get it. This is what Heaven has given me. Set up the great part first, and the small part cannot take it away. This is how a man becomes a great man, and that is all."

Mencius said, "There is the rank given by Heaven and the rank given by men. Benevolence, rightness, loyalty and good faith, and an untiring delight in the good — this is the rank given by Heaven. Duke, high minister and great officer — this is the rank given by men.

The men of old cultivated the rank given by Heaven, and the rank given by men followed. The men of today cultivate the rank given by Heaven in order to seek the rank given by men, and once they have the rank given by men they throw away the rank given by Heaven. This is deep folly, and in the end they too must be ruined."

Mencius said, "To wish to be noble is a heart all men share. Every man has in himself what is noble, only he does not think of it.

What another man makes noble is not true nobility. What Zhao Meng makes noble, Zhao Meng can make base.

The Shi says, 'Already drunk with wine, already filled with virtue.' This says that a man is filled with benevolence and rightness, and so does not long for another man's rich meat and fine grain. A good name and wide praise rest on him, and so he does not long for another man's embroidered robes."

Mencius said, "Benevolence overcomes what is not benevolent as water overcomes fire. Those who work at benevolence today are like a man putting out a cartload of burning brushwood with a cup of water. When the fire is not out they say that water does not overcome fire, and this gives great help to what is not benevolent. In the end they too must be ruined."

Mencius said, "The five grains are the finest of seeds. Yet if they truly do not ripen, they are worth less than barnyard grass. Benevolence too lies only in bringing it to ripeness."

Mencius said, "When Yi (羿) taught men to shoot, he made them set their will on drawing the bow full, and the learner too sets his will on drawing it full. When a great carpenter teaches men, he does it with the compass and the square, and the learner too works with the compass and the square."