of one of the high officers. They had an animated discussion. The officer accused Mencius of showing disrespect to the king. The philosopher replied that no man in Ts'e showed so much respect for the sovereign as he did, for it was only he who brought high and truly royal subjects under his notice.

"That," said the officer, "is not my meaning. The rule is 'When the prince's order calls, the carriage must not be waited for.' You were going to the court, but when you heard the king's message, you did not do so. This seems not in accordance with that rule." Mencius explained :-" There are three things universally acknowledged to be honourable,-nobility, age, and virtue. In courts, nobility holds the first place; in villages, age; and for helping one's generation and presiding over the people, the other two are not equal to virtue. The possession of one of the three docs not authorize the despising of one who has the other two.

A prince who is to accomplish great deeds will have ministers whom he does not call to go to see him. When he wishes to consult with them, he goes to them. The prince who does not honour the virtuous, and delight in their ways of doing, to this extent, is not worth having to do with.

"There was T'ang with E Yin :-he first learned of him, and then made him his minister; and so without difficulty he became sovereign. There was the duke Hwan with Kwan Chung :-he first learned of him, and then made him his minister; and so without difficulty he became chief of all the princes. "So did Tang behave to E Yin, and the duke Hwan to Kwan Chung, that they would not venture to call them to go to them. If Kwan Chung might not be called to him by his prince, how much less may I be called, who would not play the part of Kwan Chung!" 1

We are to suppose that these sentiments were conveyed to the king by the officer with whom Mencius spent the night. It is a pity that the exposition of them could only be effected in such a roundabout manner, and was preceded by such acts of prevarication. But where the two parties were so suspicious of each other, we need not wonder that they separated before long. Mencius resigned his honorary appointment, and prepared to return to Tsow. On this occasion king Seuen visited him, and after some complimentary expressions asked whether he might expect to see him again. "I dare not request permission to visit you [at any particular time]," replied Mencius, "but, indeed, it is what I desire." 2

1 Bk II. Pt II. ii.

2 Bk II. Pt II. x. I consider that this chapter, and others here referred to, belong to Mencius' first departure from Ts'e. I do so because we can hardly suppose that the king and his officers would not have understood him better by the end of his second residence. Moreover, while Mencius retires, his language in x. 2 and xi. 5, 6 is of such a nature that it leaves an opening for him to return again.

The king made another attempt to detain him, and sent an officer, called She, to propose to him to remain in the State, on the understanding that he should have a house large enough to accommodate his disciples, and an allowance of ten thousand measures of grain to support them. All Mencius' efforts had not sufficed to make king Seuen and his ministers understand him. They thought he was really actuated like themselves by a desire for wealth. He indignantly rejected the proposal, and pointed out the folly of it, considering that he had already declined a hundred thousand measures in holding only an honorary appointment.

So Mencius turned his back on Ts'e; but he withdrew with a slow and lingering step, stopping three nights in one place, to afford the king an opportunity to recall him on a proper understanding. Some reproached him with his hesitancy, but he sufficiently explained himself. "The king," he said, "is, after all, one who may be made to do good. If he were to use me, would it be for the happiness of Ts'e only? It would be for the happiness of the people of the whole empire. I am hoping that the king will change; I am daily hoping for this.

"Am I like one of your little-minded people? They will remonstrate with their prince, and on their remonstrance not being accepted, they get angry, and, with their passion displayed in their countenance, they take their leave, and travel with all their strength for a whole day, before they will rest."

way

7. After he left Ts'e, Mencius found a home for some time in the small principality of Trăng, on the south of Ts'e, in the ruler of which he had a sincere admirer and Mencius in docile pupil. He did not proceed thither imme- his leaving T'se T'ang;-from diately, however, but seems to have taken his to B. C. 318. to Sung, which consisted mostly of the present department of Kwei-tih in Ho-nan.' There he was visited by the heirson of Tăng, who made a long detour, while on a journey to Ts'oo, for the purpose of seeing him. The philosopher discoursed on the goodness of human nature, and the excellent ways of Yaou and Shun. His hearer admired, but doubted.

1 Bk II. Pt II. xii.

This is gathered from Bk III. Pt I. i. 1, where the crown-prince of Tăng visits Mencius, and from Bk II. Pt II. iii., where his accepting a gift in Sung appears to have been subsequent to his refusing one in Ts'e.

He could not forget, however, and the lessons which he received produced fruit before long.

From Sung Mencius returned to Tsow, by way of Seeh. In both Sung and Seeh he accepted large gifts from the rulers, which help us in some measure to understand how he could maintain an expenditure which must have been great, and which gave occasion also for an ingenious exposition of the principles on which he guided his course among the princes.

"When you were in Ts'e," said one of his disciples, "you refused 100 yil of fine gold, which the king sent, while in Sung you accepted 70 yih, and in Sëeh 50. If you were right in refusing the gift in the first case, you did wrong in accepting it in the other two. If you were right in accepting it in those two cases, you were wrong in refusing it in Ts'e. You must accept one of these alternatives." "I did right in all the cases," replied Mencius. "When I was in Sung, I was about to undertake a long journey. Travellers must be provided with what is necessary for their expenses. The prince's message was 'a present against travelling-expenses : why should I have declined the gift? In Seeh I was under apprehensions for my safety, and taking measures for my protection. The message was 'I have heard you are taking measures to protect yourself, and send this to help you in procuring arms.' Why should I have declined the gift? But when I was in Ts'e, I had no occasion for money: To send a man a gift when he has no occasion for it is to bribe him. How is it possible that a superior man should be taken with a bribe?" I

Before Mencius had been long in Tsow, the crown-prince of Trăng succeeded to the rule of the principality, and, calling to mind the lessons which he had heard in Sung, sent an officer to consult the philosopher on the manner in which he should perform the funeral and mourning services for his father. Mencius of course advised him to carry out in the strictest manner the ancient regulations. The new prince's relatives and the officers of the State opposed, but ineffectually. Mencius' counsel was followed, and the effect was great. Duke Wăn became an object of general admiration.

By and by Mencius proceeded himself to Tăng. We may suppose that he was invited thither by the prince as soon as the rules of mourning would allow his holding free communication with him. The chapters which give an account of their conversations are really interesting. Men

2 Bk III. Pt I. ii. The note of time which is relied on as enabling us to follow Mencius here is the intimation, Bk I. Pt II. xiv., that "Ts'e was about to fortify Sëeh." This is referred to B.C. 320, when king Seuen appointed his brother Teen Ying over the dependency of Seeh, and took measures to fortify it.

cius recommended that attention should be chiefly directed to the encouragement of agriculture and education. He would have nourishment secured both for the body and the mind of every subject. When the duke was lamenting the danger to which he was exposed from his powerful and encroaching neighbours, Mencius told him he might adopt one of two courses;—either leave his State, and like king T'ae go and find a settlement elsewhere, or be prepared to die for his patrimony. "If you do good," said he, "among your descendants in after-generations there will be one who shall attain to the Royal dignity. But results are with Heaven. What is Ts'e to you, O prince? Be strong to do good. That is all your business."

2

After all, nothing came of Mencius' residence in Tăng. We should like to know what made him leave it.

Confucius

said that, if any of the princes were to employ him, he should achieve something considerable in twelve months, and in the course of three years the government would be perfected. Mencius taught that, in his time, with half the merit of former days double the result might be accomplished. Here in Tăng a fair field seemed to be afforded him, but he was not able to make his promise good. Possibly the good purposes and docility of duke Wăn may not have held out, or Mencius may have found that it was easier to theorize about government, than actually to carry it on. Whatever may have been the cause, we find him in B.c. 319 at the court of king Hwuy of Leang.

Before he left Tăng, Mencius had his rencounter with the disciples of the "shrike-tongued barbarian of the south," one Heu Hing, who came to Tăng on hearing of the reforms which were being made at Mencius' advice by the duke Wăn. This was one of the dreamy speculators of the time, to whom I have already alluded. He pretended to follow the lessons of Shin-nung, one of the reputed founders of the ́empire and the father of husbandry, and came to Tăng with his plough upon his shoulder, followed by scores of followers, all wearing the coarsest clothes, and supporting themselves by making mats and sandals. It was one of his maxims that "the magistrates should be labouring men." He would have the sovereign grow his own rice, and cook his 2 Bk I. Pt II. xiii. xiv. xv. 4 Bk II. Pt I. i. 13.

'Bk III. Pt I. iii.

3

Confucian Analects XIII. x.

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own meals. Not a few of "The Learned were led away by his doctrines, but Mencius girt up his loins to oppose the heresy, and ably vindicated the propriety of a division of labour, and of a lettered class conducting the government. It is just possible that the appearance of Heu Hing, and the countenance shown to him, may have had something to do with Mencius' leaving the State.

Leang;-B. c. 319,

318.

8. Leang was another name for Wei, one of the States into which Tsin had been divided. King Hwuy, early in Mencius in his reign, B.C. 364, had made the city of Taeleang, in the present department of K'ae-fung, his capital, and given its name to his whole principality. It was the year before his death, when Mencius visited him.1 A long, stormy, and disastrous rule was about to terminate, but the king was as full of activity and warlike enterprise as ever he had been. At his first interview with Mencius, he addressed him in the well-known words, "Venerable Sir, since you have not counted it far to come here, a distance of a thousand le, may I presume that you are likewise provided with counsels to profit my kingdom?" Mencius in reply starts from the word profit, and expatiates eloquently on the evil consequences that must ensue from making a regard to profit the ground of conduct or the rule of policy. As for himself, his theme must be benevolence and righteousness. On these he would discourse, but on nothing else, and in following them a prince would obtain true and sure advantages.

Only five conversations are related between king Hwuy and the philosopher. They are all in the spirit of the first which has just been described, and of those which he had with king Seuen of Ts'e. There is the same freedom of expostulation, or, rather, boldness of reproof, and the same unhesitating assurance of the success that would follow the

1 There are various difficulties about the reign of king Hwuy of Lëang. Sze-ma Ts'ëen makes it commence in 369 and terminate in 334. He is then succeeded by Seang whose reign ends in 318; and he is followed by Gae till 295. What are called "The Bamboo Books" extend Hwuy's reign to B.C. 318, and the next 20 years are assigned to king Gae. "The Annals of the Empire" (which are compiled from "The General Mirror of History") follow the Bamboo Books in the length of king Hwuy's reign, but make him followed by Sëang; and take no note of a king Gae.-From Mencius we may be assured that Hwuy was succeeded by Seang, and the view of his Life, which I have followed in this sketch, leads to the longer period assigned to his reign.