Exhausting the Mind, Part Two盡心下

Mencius said, "How unbenevolent was King Hui of Liang! The benevolent man extends from what he loves to what he does not love. The unbenevolent man extends from what he does not love to what he loves."

Gongsun Chou asked, "What do you mean?"

"For the sake of land King Hui of Liang ground his own people to pulp and sent them to battle, and he was greatly defeated. He meant to fight again, and fearing that he could not win, he drove the sons and younger brothers he loved to their death. This is what is meant by extending from what he does not love to what he loves."

Mencius said, "In the Chunqiu there are no righteous wars. That one was better than another, this there is. A punitive war (征) is the one above striking the one below. States that stand as equals do not punish one another."

Mencius said, "To believe the Shu whole is worse than to have no Shu. Of the Wucheng (武成) I take two or three strips and no more.

The benevolent man has no enemy in all under heaven. When the most benevolent struck the least benevolent, how could the blood have run until it floated the pestles?"

Mencius said, "If a man says, 'I am good at drawing up ranks, I am good at battle,' it is a great crime.

When the ruler of a state loves benevolence, he has no enemy in all under heaven. When he faces south and strikes, the tribes of the north complain, and when he faces east and strikes, the tribes of the west complain, saying, 'Why does he put us last?'

When King Wu struck Yin, he had three hundred leather chariots and three thousand tiger-brave men. The king said, 'Do not be afraid. I come to bring you peace, not to make an enemy of the people.' And they put their foreheads to the ground and bowed their heads as if a hill were crumbling.

The word for striking (征) means to set right (正). Each of them wished to be set right. What use then is battle?"

Mencius said, "The carpenter and the wheelwright can give a man the compass and the square, but they cannot make him skillful."

Mencius said, "When Shun ate dry rice and greens, it was as if he would do so to the end of his days. When he became Son of Heaven, he wore embroidered robes and played the zither, and the two women waited upon him, as if he had always had these things."

Mencius said, "Only now do I know how heavy a thing it is to kill another man's kin. Kill another man's father, and he will kill your father. Kill another man's elder brother, and he will kill your elder brother. So it is not that you killed them yourself. There is but one step between."

Mencius said, "In old days barrier gates were made to keep violence out. Today barrier gates are made to work violence."

Mencius said, "If a man himself does not walk the Way, it will not be walked by his wife and children. If he directs others and not by the Way, he cannot get it done even by his wife and children."

Mencius said, "A year of famine cannot kill the man well provided in profit, and a crooked age cannot unsettle the man well provided in virtue."

Mencius said, "The man who loves a name can yield up a state of a thousand chariots. But if he is not truly such a man, a single basket of rice and a single bowl of soup will show in his face."

Mencius said, "If the benevolent and the worthy are not trusted, the state is empty. If there is no ritual and rightness, high and low fall into disorder. If there is no government, goods and revenue fall short."

Mencius said, "A man without benevolence has won a state. A man without benevolence has never yet won all under heaven."

Mencius said, "The people are the most precious, the altars of land and grain come next, and the ruler is the lightest.

And so he who wins the hearts of the people of the hills becomes Son of Heaven. He who wins the heart of the Son of Heaven becomes a feudal lord. He who wins the heart of a feudal lord becomes a great officer.

When a feudal lord endangers the altars of land and grain, he is put aside and another set up. When the victims are ready and the millet in the vessels is clean and the sacrifices are made in their season, and still there is drought or flood, then the altars of land and grain are put aside and others set up."

Mencius said, "The sage is the teacher of a hundred generations. Bo Yi and Liuxia Hui were such men.

And so the man who hears the manner of Bo Yi, if he is stubborn, becomes honest, and if he is weak, sets his will. The man who hears the manner of Liuxia Hui, if he is mean, becomes generous, and if he is narrow, becomes broad.

They rose up a hundred generations above, and a hundred generations below there is no one who hears of them and is not stirred. Could any but a sage do this? How much more then for those who learned close beside him."

Mencius said, "Benevolence (仁) is man (人). Spoken of together, it is the Way (道)."

Mencius said, "When Confucius left Lu he said, 'Slow, slow are my steps.' That is the Way of leaving the land of one's father and mother. When he left Qi he lifted out the rice he was washing and went. That is the Way of leaving another man's state."

Mencius said, "That the gentleman came to straits between Chen and Cai was because he had no dealings with those above or those below."

Mo Ji said, "I, Ji, suffer badly from the mouths of men."

Mencius said, "There is no harm in it. The more one is a scholar, the more such talk there is. The Shi says, 'My heart is grieved and sore, and the crowd of little men hate me.' That was Confucius. 'In the end he did not put out their hatred, nor did he let his own good name fall.' That was King Wen."

Mencius said, "The worthy man makes others bright by his own brightness. Today men would make others bright by their own darkness."

Mencius said to Gaozi, "Even the narrow trail of a mountain path becomes a road if it is steadily used, and if it goes unused for a time the thatch grass blocks it. Now the thatch grass has blocked your heart."

Gaozi said, "The music of Yu is better than the music of King Wen."

Mencius said, "On what do you say so?"

"On the wearing through of the cord that hangs the bell."

"How is that enough? Were the wheel ruts at the city gate made by the strength of two horses?"

There was famine in Qi. Chen Zhen said, "The people of the state all think that you will have the grain of Tang given out again, master. Surely you cannot do it again."

Mencius said, "That would be to become a Feng Fu (馮婦).

There was a man of Jin named Feng Fu who was good at seizing tigers, and at last he became a good officer. He went out to the fields, and a crowd was chasing a tiger. The tiger had the corner of a hill at its back, and no one dared close with it. They saw Feng Fu in the distance and ran to meet him. Feng Fu bared his arms and got down from his carriage. The crowd was all delighted with him, but those who were officers laughed at him."

Mencius said, "That the mouth is toward flavors, the eye toward colors, the ear toward sounds, the nose toward smells, and the four limbs toward ease, this is nature. But there is the decree (命) in it, and so the gentleman does not call it nature.

That benevolence is toward father and son, rightness toward ruler and minister, ritual toward guest and host, wisdom toward the worthy, and the sage toward the Way of Heaven, this is the decree. But there is nature in it, and so the gentleman does not call it the decree."

Haosheng Buhai asked, "What sort of man is Yuezhengzi?"

Mencius said, "A good man and a trustworthy man."

"What is called good? What is called trustworthy?"

"What may be desired is called good (善). To have it in oneself is called trustworthy (信). To fill it out is called beautiful (美). To fill it out so that it shines is called great (大). To be great and to transform others is called sagely (聖). To be sagely and past knowing is called spiritlike (神).

Yuezhengzi is within the first two, and below the last four."

Mencius said, "He who flees the school of Mo will surely turn to Yang, and he who flees Yang will surely come back to the school of Ru. When they come back, receive them and no more.

Those who argue with Yang and Mo today are like men chasing a runaway pig. They have already put it in the pen, and still they go after it and tie its feet."

Mencius said, "There is the levy of cloth and thread, the levy of grain, and the levy of labor. The gentleman uses one of them and puts off the other two. Use two and there will be people who starve. Use three and father and son will be parted."

Mencius said, "A feudal lord has three treasures: land, people, and government. He who treasures pearls and jade will surely bring calamity on himself."

Pencheng Kuo took office in Qi.

Mencius said, "Pencheng Kuo is a dead man!"

When Pencheng Kuo was put to death, a disciple asked, "How did you know, master, that he would be put to death?"

"He was a man of small talent who had not heard the great Way of the gentleman. That was enough to kill his own body, and no more."

Mencius went to Teng and lodged at the Upper Palace. There was an unfinished sandal on the window ledge, and the keeper of the lodging looked for it and did not find it.

Someone asked him, "So it is like this. One of your followers has hidden it."

"Do you think that they came here to steal sandals?"

"Probably not. When you open your teaching, master, you do not chase those who go, and you do not turn away those who come. If a man comes with this heart in him, you receive him and no more."

Mencius said, "Every man has something he cannot bear to do. Extend that to what he does bear to do, and it is benevolence. Every man has something he will not do. Extend that to what he does do, and it is rightness.

If a man can fill out the heart that 'does not wish to harm others,' his benevolence will be more than he can use up. If a man can fill out the heart that 'does not break through a wall,' his rightness will be more than he can use up. If a man can fill out the substance of not letting himself be spoken to as 'you there,' then wherever he goes he will not fail to be right.

When an officer speaks where he may not speak, he is angling with speech. When he does not speak where he may speak, he is angling with silence. Both of these are of a kind with breaking through a wall."

Mencius said, "Words near at hand with a far meaning are good words. A hold that is brief with a giving that is broad is a good Way.

The words of the gentleman do not go below his belt, and yet the Way is in them. The hold of the gentleman is to cultivate his own body, and yet all under heaven is at peace.

The sickness of men is that they leave their own field and weed the field of another. What they ask of others is heavy, and what they lay on themselves is light."

Mencius said, "Yao and Shun had it by nature. Tang and Wu turned back and recovered it.

When bearing and movement hit the mark of ritual, that is the height of abundant virtue. To weep for the dead and grieve is not done for the living. To keep to virtue without bending is not done to seek pay. To make one's words trustworthy is not done to show one's conduct right.

The gentleman walks by the law and waits for the decree, and no more."

Mencius said, "In persuading a great man, hold him light and do not look at his towering grandeur.

A hall several fathoms high, rafter ends several feet across: if I got my will, I would not have them. Food set out a fathom wide before me, waiting women by the hundred: if I got my will, I would not have them. Merry pleasure and drinking, galloping and hunting, a thousand chariots behind me: if I got my will, I would not have them.

What is in him is all that I would not do. What is in me is all the measure of the ancients. Why then should I fear him?"

Mencius said, "For nourishing the heart there is nothing better than to have few desires.

If a man has few desires, then though there be something he does not keep, it will be little. If a man has many desires, then though there be something he keeps, it will be little."

Zeng Xi was fond of sheep dates, and so Zengzi could not bear to eat sheep dates.

Gongsun Chou asked, "Which is better, minced meat and roast meat, or sheep dates?"

Mencius said, "Minced meat and roast meat!"

Gongsun Chou said, "Then why did Zengzi eat minced meat and roast meat and not eat sheep dates?"

"Minced meat and roast meat are what all share, and sheep dates were what he alone loved. We avoid a given name and do not avoid a surname, for the surname is what all share and the given name is what one alone has."

Wan Zhang asked, "When Confucius was in Chen he said, 'Why not go home! The officers of my district are great in will but rough, pressing forward to take hold and not forgetting their beginnings.' When Confucius was in Chen, why did he think of the officers of Lu who were great in will?"

Mencius said, "Confucius said, 'If I cannot get men of the middle way to go with me, then it must be the wild and the scrupulous! The wild press forward and take hold; the scrupulous have things they will not do.' Did Confucius not wish for the middle way? He could not be sure of getting it, and so he thought of the next after."

"May I ask what a man must be to be called wild (狂)?"

"Such men as Qin Zhang, Zeng Xi, and Mu Pi were what Confucius called wild."

"Why are they called wild?"

"Their will was grand, and they would say, 'The ancients! The ancients!' But look into their conduct, and it does not cover their words.

If the wild cannot be had either, he wished to find officers who would not stoop to what is unclean, and to go with them. These are the scrupulous (獧). These are the next after that.

Confucius said, 'The only ones I would not regret to have pass my gate without entering my room are the village worthies (鄕原). The village worthy is the thief of virtue.'"

"What must a man be to be called a village worthy?"

"'Why so grand in speech? Their words do not look to their conduct, and their conduct does not look to their words, and still they say, "The ancients! The ancients!" And why walk so lonely and cold? Born into this age, be of this age, and to be good is enough.' He who hides himself and flatters the age is the village worthy."

Wan Zhang said, "A whole village calls him an honest man, and wherever he goes he is an honest man. Why then did Confucius call him the thief of virtue?"

"Find fault with him and there is nothing to bring up. Blame him and there is nothing to blame. He goes along with the common current and fits himself to a filthy age. In his dwelling he seems loyal and trustworthy, in his conduct he seems honest and clean, and the crowd is all delighted with him. He holds himself right, but you cannot enter the Way of Yao and Shun with him. And so Confucius said, 'He is the thief of virtue.'

Confucius said, 'I hate what seems and is not. I hate the weeds, fearing they confuse the young grain. I hate glib speech, fearing it confuses rightness. I hate a quick mouth, fearing it confuses trust. I hate the sounds of Zheng, fearing they confuse music. I hate purple, fearing it confuses vermilion. I hate the village worthy, fearing he confuses virtue.'

The gentleman turns back to the constant, and no more. When the constant is right, the common people rise up. When the common people rise up, there is no crookedness and no evil."

Mencius said, "From Yao and Shun down to Tang was five hundred years and more. Yu and Gao Yao saw and knew. Tang heard and knew.

From Tang down to King Wen was five hundred years and more. Yi Yin and Lai Zhu saw and knew. King Wen heard and knew.

From King Wen down to Confucius was five hundred years and more. Tai Gong Wang and San Yisheng saw and knew. Confucius heard and knew.

From Confucius down to today is a hundred years and more. The age of the sage is not far behind us, and the place where the sage lived is very near, and yet there is no one. And so there will be no one!"