when the plunderers were withdrawing [he sent word], saying, "Repair the walls and roof of my house; I will return to it;" and when the plunderers had retired, he returned. His disciples said, "Since our Master was treated with so much attention and respect, for him to be the first, on the arrival of the plunderers, to go away, so as to be observed by the people, and then, on their retiring, to return, seems to us to be improper." Shin-yew Hăng said [to them], "You do not understand this matter. Formerly, when [the house of us], · the Shin-yew, was exposed to the outbreak of the grasscarriers, there were seventy disciples in our Master's following, and none of them took any part in the matter."

2. When Tsze-sze was living in Wei, there came plunderers from Ts'e. Some one said to him, "The plunderers are coming; why not leave this ?" [But] Tsze-sze said, "If I go away, whom will the ruler have with him to guard [the city] P

3. Mencius said, "Tsăng-tsze and Tsze-sze agreed in the principle of their conduct. Tsăng-tsze was a teacher;-in the position of a father or elder brother. Tsze-sze was a minister ;—in a meaner position. If they could have exchanged places, each would have done what the other did."

XXXII. The officer Ch'oo said [to Mencius], "The king sent a person to spy out whether you, Sir, were really different from other men." Mencius replied, "How should

a school or lecture-room in the place, having, probably, as many suppose, been invited to do so-to be "aguest and teacher"-by the commandant. It was thus in the south of the present Shan-tung province. South from it, and covering the present Këang-soo and part of Cheh-këang, were the States of Woo and Yueh, all at this time subject to Yueh. Shin-yëw Hång is supposed to have been a disciple of Tsång-tsze, and a native of Woo-shing. The Shin-yew of whom he speaks must mean the head of his clan, or rather his House. When it was in peril, Tsăng-tsze's seventy disciples would have been abundantly able to cope with the grass-carriers. That they did not attempt to do so, showed that there was some reason for his conduct more than the objectors to it saw on the surface.

Par. 2. Tsze-sze of course is Confucius' grandson. He was living in Wei, and sustaining office in it.

Par. 3. We have here a striking illustration of the importance attached to the position of a "teacher," of which I have spoken in the Prolegomena.

CH. XXXII. SAGES ARE JUST LIKE OTHER MEN IN THEIR PERSONAL APPEARANCE AND ORDINARY WAYS.

I be different from other men? Yaou and Shun were just the same as other men."

XXXIII. 1. "A man of Ts'e had a wife and a concubine, and lived together with them in his house. When their good-man went out, he was sure to get himself well filled with spirits and flesh and then return, and on his wife's asking him with whom he had been eating and drinking, they were sure to be all men of wealth and rank. The wife informed the concubine, saying, 'When the good-man goes out, he is sure to come back having partaken plentifully of spirits and flesh, and when I ask him with whom he has been eating and drinking, they are all men of wealth and rank. And yet no men of distinction ever come [here]. I will spy out where our good-man goes.' [Accordingly] she got up early in the morning, and privately followed the good-man to where he was going. All through the city there was nobody who stood and talked with him. At last he came to those who were sacrificing among the tombs outside the outer wall on the east, and begged what they had left. Not being satisfied, he looked round him and went to another party;-and this was the way in which he got himself satiated. His wife went home, and informed the concubine, saying, 'It was to the good-man that we looked up in hopeful contemplation, and with whom our lot is cast for life; and these are his ways.' [On this] she and the concubine reviled their good-man, and wept together in the middle courtyard. [In the mean time] the good-man, knowing nothing of all this, came in with a jaunty air, carrying himself proudly to them.

Ch'oo was a minister of Ts'e. The incident mentioned probably occurred on Mencius' first arrival in Ts'e, and before he had any interview with the king.

CH. XXXIII. THE DISGRACEFUL MEANS WHICH MANY TOOK TO SEEK FOR WEALTH AND HONOURS.

Par. 1. A "Mencius said " must have dropt out of the text at the beginning of this paragraph. All the commentators seem to be agreed in this. The statement that the man "lived together with his wife and concubine in the house" seems to be intended to indicate that he passed as a man of wealth, who was not engaged in trade, or any business that called him away from home. "Good-man " is equivalent to husband; so "good-man" used to be employed in Scotland.

2. "According to the view which a superior man takes of things, as to the ways by which men seek for riches, honours, gain, and advancement, there are few of their wives and concubines who might not be ashamed and weep together because of them."

Par. 2 contains the moral and application of the narrative given in the former paragraph.

BOOK V.

WAN CHANG. PART I.

CHAPTER I. 1. Wan Chang asked [Mencius], saying, "[When] Shun went into the fields, he cried out and wept towards the pitying heavens. Why did he cry out and weep?" Mencius replied, "He was dissatisfied and full of earnest desire."

2. Wan Chang pursued, "When his parents love him, [a son] rejoices and forgets them not; and when they hate him, though they punish him, he does not allow himself to be dissatisfied. Was Shun then dissatisfied [with his parents]?" [Mencius said], "Ch'ang Seih asked Kung-ming Kaou, saying, 'As to Shun's going into the fields, I have received your instructions; but I do not understand about his weeping and crying out to the pitying heavens, and to his parents.' Kung-ming Kaou answered

TITLE OF THE BOOK. The Book is named from Wan Chang, who is almost the only interlocutor with Mencius in it. He has been mentioned before in III. ii. V. The tradition is that it was in company with Wan's disciples that Mencius, baffled in all his hopes of doing public service, and having retired into privacy, composed the seven Books which constitute his Works. The first Part of this Book is all occupied with discussions in vindication of Shun and other ancient worthies.

CH. I. SHUN'S GREAT FILIAL PIETY;-HOW IT CARRIED HIM INTO THE FIELDS TO WEEP AND DEPLORE HIS INABILITY TO SECURE THE AFFECTION AND SYMPATHY OF HIS PARENTS, AND THAT HE NEVER CHERISHED ANY GRUDGE AGAINST THEM FOR THEIR TREATMENT OF HIM.

Par. 1. The incident about Shun here mentioned is found in the Shoo, II. ii. 21. It is given there, however, as having occurred in the early part of his life; and this, as will be seen, makes it difficult, even impossible, to reconcile what we read in the Shoo about Shun with Mencius' statements in this chapter.

Par. 2. Shun's dissatisfaction was with himself, but this is at first kept in the background, and Wan Chang either misunderstood it, and thought that his dissatisfaction was with his parents, or chose to appear to do so. Оп what he says about the relations of a son with his parents, see Ana. IV. xviii. Kung-ming Kaou is believed to have been a disciple of Tsăng-tsze; and Ch'ang Seih again was Kaou's disciple. The latter probably means to say that he understood Shun's going into the fields to have been that he

him, 'You do not understand that matter.' Now Kungming Kaou thought that the heart of a filial son [like Shun] could not be so free from sorrow [as Seih seemed to imagine he might have been]. [Shun would be saying,] 'I exert my strength to cultivate the fields, but I am thereby only discharging my duty as son. What is there [wrong] in me that my parents do not love me?'

3. The emperor caused his own [children],-nine sons and two daughters, the various officers, oxen and sheep, storehouses and granaries, [all] to be prepared for the service of Shun amid the channeled fields. Most of the officers in the empire repaired to him. The emperor designed that he should superintend the empire along with himself, and then to transfer it to him. But because his parents were not in accord with him, he felt like a poor man who has nowhere to turn to.

4. "To be an object of complacency to the officers of the empire is what men desire; but it was not sufficient to remove the sorrow of [Shun]. The possession of beauty is what men desire,-but though [Shun] had for his wives the two daughters of the emperor, it was not sufficient to remove his sorrow. Riches are what men desire, but though the empire was the rich property [of Shun], it was not enough to remove his sorrow. Honours are what men desire, but though [Shun] had the dignity of being the son of Heaven, it was not sufficient to remove his sorrow. The reason why his being the object of men's complacency, the possession of beauty, riches, and honours, could not

might cultivate them in order to nourish his parents. He then quotes the words of the Shoo more fully than they are quoted in the preceding paragraph, and says he could not understand the grief which they described, his idea being the same which Wan Chang had that they must indicate that Shun was dissatisfied with his parents. "A filial son could not be so free from sorrow [as Seih seemed to imagine that Shun might have been];" that is, Seih understood that Shun did his duty in cultivating the fields for his parents, and imagined that he should then have dismissed all care from his mind as to any differences between them and him.

Par. 3. "The emperor " is, of course, Yaou. See the Shoo, I. 12, where Yaou gives his two daughters in marriage to Shun. It is stated there, however, that Shun had by that time transformed his parents and his halfbrother Seang, and brought them to be in harmony with him. This is the chronological difficulty in the account of Shun's history in the Shoo and that given by Mencius in this chapter.