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4. "In the Declaration of T'ang it is said, 'O sun. when wilt thou expire? We will die together with thee,' The people wished for Kee's death, though they should die with him. Although he had towers, ponds, birds, and animals, how could he have pleasure alone?"

III. 1. King Hwuy of Leang said, "Small as my virtue is, in the government of my kingdom, I do indeed exert my mind to the utmost. If the year be bad on the inside of the river, I remove as many of the people as I can to the East of the river, and convey grain to the country in the Inside. When the year is bad on the East of the river, I act on the same plan. On examining the government of the neighbouring kingdoms, I do not find that there is any prince who employs his mind as I do. And yet the people of the neighbouring kingdoms do not decrease, nor do my people increase. How is this?"

2. Mencius replied, "Your Majesty is fond of war;let me take an illustration from war.-The soldiers move forward to the sound of the drums; and after their weapons have been crossed, on one side they throw away their coats of mail, trail their arms behind them, and run. Some run a hundred paces and stop; some run fifty paces and stop. What would you think if those who run fifty paces were to laugh at those who run a hundred paces?" The king said, "They may not do so. They only did not run a hundred paces; but they also ran away." "Since your Majesty knows this," replied Mencius, "you need not hope that your people will become more numerous than those of the neighbouring kingdoms.

3. "If the seasons of husbandry be not interfered with, the grain will be more than can be eaten. If close nets are not allowed to enter the pools and ponds, the fishes and turtles will be more than can be consumed. If the axes and bills enter the hills and forests only at

the proper time, the wood will be more than can be used. When the grain and fish and turtles are more than can be eaten, and there is more wood than can be used, this enables the people to nourish their living and bury their dead, without any feeling against any. This condition, in which the people nourish their living and bury their dead without any feeling against any, is the first step of Royal Government.

4. "Let mulberry trees be planted about the homesteads with their five mow, and persons of fifty years may be clothed with silk. In keeping fowls, pigs, dogs, and swine, let not their times of breeding be neglected, and persons of seventy years may eat flesh. Let there not be taken away the time that is proper for the cultivation of the farm with its hundred mow, and the family of several mouths that is supported by it shall not suffer from hunger. Let careful attention be paid to education in schools, inculcating in it especially the filial and fraternal duties, and gray-haired men will not be seen upon the roads, carrying burdens on their backs or on their heads. It never has been that the ruler of a State, where such results were seen,-persons of seventy wearing silk and eating flesh, and the black-haired people suffering neither from hunger nor cold, did not attain to the Imperial dignity.

5. "Your dogs and swine eat the food of men, and you do not know to make any restrictive arrangements. There are people dying from famine on the roads, and you do not know to issue the stores of your granaries for them. When people die, you say, 'It is not owing to me; it is owing to the year.' In what does this differ from stabbing a man and killing him, and then sayingIt was not I; it was the weapon?' Let your Majesty cease to lay the blame on the year, and instantly from all the empire the people will come to you."

IV. 1. King Hwuy of Leang said, "I wish quietly to receive your instructions."

2. Mencius replied, "Is there any difference between killing a man with a stick and with a sword?" The king said, "There is no difference."

3. "Is there any difference between doing it with a sword and with the style of government?" "There is no difference," was the reply.

4. Mencius then said, "In your kitchen there is fat meat; in your stables there are fat horses. But your people have the look of hunger, and on the wilds there are those who have died of famine. This is leading on beasts to devour men.

5. "Beasts devour one another, and men hate them for doing so. When a prince, being the parent of his people, administers his government so as to be chargeable with leading on beasts to devour men, where is that parental relation to the people?"

6. Chung-ne said, "Was he not without posterity who first made wooden images to bury with the dead? So he said, because that man made the semblances of men, and used them for that purpose:--what shall be thought of him who causes his people to die of hunger?"

V. 1. King Hwuy of Leang said, "There was not in the empire a stronger State than Tsin, as you, venerable Sir, know. But since it descended to me, on the east we have been defeated by Ts'e, and then my eldest son perished; on the west we have lost seven hundred le of territory to Ts'in; and on the south we have sustained disgrace at the hands of Ts'oo. I have brought shame on my departed predecessors, and wish on their account to wipe it away, once for all. What course is to be pursued to accomplish this?"

2. Mencius replied, "With a territory which is only a hundred le square, it is possible to attain the Imperial dignity.

3. "If your Majesty will indeed dispense a benevolent government to the people, being sparing in the use

of punishments and fines, and making the taxes and levies light, so causing that the fields shall be ploughed deep, and the weeding of them be carefully attended to, and that the strong-bodied, during their days of leisure, shall cultivate their filial piety, fraternal respectfulness, sincerity, and truthfulness, serving thereby, at home, their fathers and elder brothers, and, abroad, their elders and superiors;-you will then have a people who can be employed, with sticks which they have prepared, to oppose the strong mail and sharp weapons of the troops of Ts'in and Ts'oo.

4. "The rulers of those States, rob their people of their time, so that they cannot plough and weed their fields, in order to support their parents. Their parents suffer from cold and hunger. Brothers, wives, and children, are separated and scattered abroad.

5. "Those rulers, as it were, drive their people into pit-falls, or drown them. Your Majesty will go to punish them. In such a case, who will oppose your Majesty?

6. "In accordance with this is the saying,- The benevolent has no enemy.' I beg your Majesty not to doubt what I say."

VI. 1. Mencius went to see the king Seang of Leang.

2. On coming out from the interview, he said to some persons, "When I looked at him from a distance, he did not appear like a sovereign; when I drew near to him, I saw nothing venerable about him. Abruptly he asked me, 'How can the empire be settled?' I replied, 'It will be settled by being united under one sway?'

3. "Who can so unite it?""

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4. "I replied, He who has no pleasure in killing men can so unite it.'

5. "Who can give it to him?'"

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6. " I replied, All the people of the empire will unan

imously give it to him. Does your Majesty understand the way of the growing grain? During the seventh and eighth months, when drought prevails, the plants become dry. Then the clouds collect densely in the heavens, they send down torrents of rain, and the grain erects itself, as if by a shoot. When it does so, who can keep it back? Now among the shepherds of men throughout the empire, there is not one who does not find pleasure in killing men. If there were one who did not find pleasure in killing men, all the people in the empire wonld look towards him with out-stretched necks. Such being indeed the case, the people would flock to him, as water flows downward with a rush, which no one can repress.""

VII. 1. The king Seuen of Ts'e asked, saying, "May I be informed by you of the transactions of Hwan of Ts'e, and Wan of Tsin?"

2. Mencius replied, "There were none of the disciples of Chung-ne who spoke about the affairs of Hwan and Wan, and therefore they have not been transmitted to these after ages;--your servant has not heard them. If you will have me speak, let it be about Imperial government."

3. The king said, "What virtue must there be in order to the attainment of Imperial sway?" Mencius answered, "The love and protection of the people; with this there is no power which can prevent a ruler from attaining it."

4. The king asked again, "Is such an one as I competent to love and protect the people?" Mencius said, "Yes." "From what do you know that I am competent to that?" "I heard the following incident from Hoo Heih; The king,' said he, 'was sitting aloft in the hall, when a man appeared, leading an ox past the lower part of it. The king saw him, and asked, Where is the ox going? The man replied, We are going to consecrate

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