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. 66 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. On 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 Chang 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 a 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. remove his sorrow was because it could be removed only by his being in [entire] accord with his parents. 5. "The desire of a child is towards his father and mother. When he becomes conscious of [the attractions of] beauty, his desire is towards young and beautiful women. When he [comes to] have a wife and children, his desire is towards them. When he obtains office, his desire is towards his ruler; and if he cannot get the regard of his ruler, he burns within. [But] the man of great filial piety, all his life, has his desire towards his parents. In the great Shun I see the case of one whose desire was towards them when he was fifty years old." II. 1. Wan Chang asked [Mencius], saying, “It is said in the Book of Poetry, 'How do we proceed in taking a wife? Announcement must [first] be made to our parents.' If [the rule] be indeed as thus expressed, no one ought to have illustrated it so well as Shun;-how was it that Shun's marriage took place without his informing [his parents]?" Mencius replied, "If he had informed them, he would not have been able to marry. That male and female dwell together is the greatest of human relations. If [Shun] had informed his parents, he must have made void this greatest of human relations, and incurred thereby their resentment. It was on this account that he did not inform them." 2. Wan Chang said, "As to Shun's marrying without making announcement [to his parents], I have heard your CH. II. DEFENCE OF SHUN AGAINST THE CHARGE OF MARRYING WITHOUT INFORMING HIS PARENTS, AND OF HYPOCRISY IN HIS FRIENDLY BEARING AND CONDUCT TOWARDS HIS BROTHER. DEFENCE ALSO OF YAOU FOR GIVING HIS DAUGHTERS TO SHUN, WITHOUT THE APPROVAL OF SHUN'S PARENTS. Par. 1. The lines from the Book of Poetry are in the She, I. viii. VI. 2. But the rule expressed in them was overruled by the higher duty to raise up posterity for one's parents;-see IV. i. XXVI. Par. 2. As all negotiations for the marriage of children should be between the parents on both sides, Yaou should have communicated with Shun's father; but here again the same consideration absolved Yaou from blame. Par. 3. Sëang, it is understood, was only the half-brother of Shun. On the death of Shun's mother, Koo-sow had married again, or raised a former concubine, whose son was Sëang, to the rank of his wife. The various in instructions. [But] how was it that the emperor gave him his daughters as wives without informing [his parents]?" [Mencius] said, "The emperor also knew that, if he informed his parents, he could not have given him his daughters as wives." 3. Wan Chang said, "His parents set Shun to repair a granary, and then removed the ladder [by which he had ascended], [after which] Koo-sow set fire to it. They sent him to dig a well, [from which he managed to] get out; but they, [not knowing this,] proceeded to cover it up. [His brother] Sëang said, Of this scheme to cover up the city-forming gentleman the merit is all mine. Let my parents have his oxen and sheep; let them have his granaries and storehouses. His shield and spear shall be mine; his lute shall be mine; his carved bow shall be mine; and I will make his two wives attend for me to my bed.' Seang then went away and entered Shun's house, and there was Shun upon a couch with his lute. Seang said, [I am come] simply because I was thinking anxiously about you,' [and at the same time] he looked ashamed. Shun said to him, 'There are all my officers; do you take the management of them for me.' I do not know whether Shun was ignorant of Seang's wishing to kill him." [Mencius] replied, "How could he be ignorant of it? But when Seang was sorrowful,' he was also sorrowful, and when Seang was joyful, he was also joyful." 4. [Wan Chang] continued, "Then was Shun one who rejoiced hypocritically? "No," was the reply. "Formerly some one sent a present of a live fish to Tsze-ch'an of Ch'ing. Tsze-ch'an ordered his pond-keeper to feed it cidents here mentioned are taken from tradition, or perhaps the Shoo was more complete in Mencius' days than it has come down to us. Sze-ma Ts'ëen tells us that Shun got through the flames by screening himself with two bamboo hats, and that he escaped from the well by a concealed passage which led from it. Sëang calls him "the city-forming gentleman." This is the most natural rendering of the terms, though it is not that of Chaou K'e. They say that wherever Shun lived three years, the people flocked to him, so as to form a too,—a city only inferior to the capital city of a State. Par. 4. If Tsze-ch'an had known that his pond-keeper had eaten the fish, would he not have punished him? The case is not in point to vindicate Shun's treatment of Sëang, of whose vile designs he was well aware. His |