occasions me great alarm; what is the proper course for me to take in the case?"

2. Mencius replied, "Formerly, when king T'ae dwelt in Pin, the Teih were [continually] making incursions upon it. He [therefore] left it, and went to the foot of Mount K'e, and there took up his residence. He did not take that situation as having selected it;—it was a matter of necessity.

3. "If you do good, among your descendants in future generations there shall be one who will attain to the Royal sway. The superior man lays the foundation of the inheritance, and hands down the beginning [which he has made], doing what can be continued [by his successors]. As to the accomplishment of the great result, that is with Heaven. What is that [Ts'e] to you, O prince? you have simply to make yourself strong to do good."

XV. 1. Duke Văn of Tăng asked, saying, “Tăng is a small State. I do my utmost to serve the great kingdoms [on either side of it], but I cannot escape [suffering from them]. What is the proper course for me to pursue in the case?" Mencius replied, "Formerly, when king T'ae dwelt in Pin, the Teih were continually making incursions upon it. He served them with skins and silks, and still he suffered from them. He served them with dogs and horses, and still he suffered from them. He served them with pearls and pieces of jade, and still he suffered from them. On this he assembled his old men, and announced to them, saying, 'What the Teih want is my territory. I have heard

RIGHT.

Mencius was at his wit's end, I suppose, to give duke Wån an answer. It was all very well to tell him to do good, but the promise of a royal descendant would hardly afford him much comfort.

Par. 1. Seeh was a small principality, adjoining Tång, and like it referred to the same present district in department Yen-chow. It had long been incorporated with Ts'e, which now proposed to fortify its principal town, as a basis of operations, probably, against Tång.

Par. 2. See par. 2 of next chapter on king T'ae's removal from Pin to K'e. Par. 3. In his first sentence here, Mencius, no doubt, was thinking, and would have duke Wan think, of the kings Wan and Woo, the descendants of king T'ae.

CH. XV. TWO HONOURABLE COURSES OPEN TO A PRINCE THREATENED BY ENEMIES WHOM HE CANNOT RESIST,-REMOVAL OR ABDICATION, AND DEATH IN A GALLANT DEFENCE.

this,—that the superior man does not injure his people for that which he nourishes them with. My children, why should you be troubled about having no ruler. I will leave this.' [Accordingly] he left Pin, crossed over Mount Lëang, [built] a town at the foot of Mount K'e, and dwelt there. The people of Pin said, ' He is a benevolent man ;—we must not lose him.' Those who followed him [looked] like crowds going to market.

4." On the other hand [a prince] may say, '[ The country] has been held [by my ancestors] for generations, and is not what I can undertake to dispose of in my person. I will go to the death for it, and will not leave it.'

5. “I beg you, O prince, to make your election between

these two courses.

XVI. 1. Duke P'ing of Loo was about to go out [one day], when his favourite Tsang Ts'ang begged [to ask] him, saying, "On other days, when your lordship has gone out, you have given instructions to the officers as to where you were going. But now the horses have been put to your carriage, and the officers do not yet know where you are going. I venture to request your orders." The duke said, "I am going to see the philosopher Măng.” "What! said the

Par. 2. Some of the particulars which Mencius gives here of king T'ae's dealings with the Teih are also found in Fuh-sång's Introduction to the Shoo. They were no doubt from traditional accounts still floating among the people towards the end of the Chow dynasty.

CH. XVI. DISAPPOINTMENT OF MENCIUS' PROSPECTS OF USEFULNESS IN LOO, AND HIS REMARKS UPON IT. A MAN'S WAY IN LIFE IS ORDERED BY HEAVEN; THE INSTRUMENTALITY OF OTHER MEN IN FORWARDING OR OBSTRUCTING HIS OBJECTS IS ONLY SUBORDINATE. Mencius' presence in Loo at this time is referred to B.C. 309, and he is supposed to have henceforth given up the idea of doing anything for his age by his labours with its kings and princes. His prospects of doing anything with duke P'ing could not have been great, for Loo had for a considerable time lost its independence, and the descendants of the duke of Chow were suffered to drag out an unhonoured existence only by the contemptuous forbearance of Ts'oo.

Par. 1. Yoh-ching, mentioned in par. 2, was a disciple of Mencius, with whom we shall meet again. He had found employment at the court of Ping, and had spoken to him of his master, so that now the duke was about to proceed in his carriage to invite Mencius to his court, as his counsellor and guide. Wishing to do him honour, he would in the first place visit him at his lodging. His favourite Tsang Ts'ang knew all this, and took measures

other. "That you demean yourself, O prince, by what you are doing, to pay the first visit to a common man, is, I apprehend, because you think that he is a man of talents and virtue. [Our rules of] propriety and righteousness must have come from such men; but on the occasion of this Măng's second mourning, his observances exceeded those of the former. Do not go to see him, O prince." The duke said, "I will not."

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2. The officer Yoh-ching entered [the court], and had an audience. Prince," said he, "why have you not gone to "One told me,' see Măng Ko?” was the reply," that on the occasion of Mr Mang's second mourning, his observances exceeded those of the former, and therefore I did not go to see him." [Yoh-ching] said, "How is this? By what your lordship calls 'exceeding,' you mean, I suppose, that on the former occasion he used the ceremonies appropriate to an inferior officer, and on the latter those appropriate to a great officer; that he first used three tripods, and afterwards five." "No," said the duke, “I refer to the greater excellence of the coffin, the shell, the grave-clothes, and the shroud.' [Yoh-ching] replied, "That cannot be called 'exceeding." That was the difference between being poor and being rich."

"

3. [After this] the officer Yoh-ching [went to] see Mencius, and said, "I told the ruler about you, and he was consequently coming to see you, when his favourite Tsang Ts ang stopped him, and he did not carry his purpose into effect. [Mencius] said, "A man's advance is effected, it may be, by others, and the stopping him is, it may be, from the efforts of others. But to advance a man or to stop his advance is [really] beyond the power of other men. My not finding [the right prince] in the marquis of Loo, is from Heaven. How could that scion of the Tsang family cause me not to find [the ruler that would suit me]?"

accordingly to prevent the meeting of the duke and the philosopher. The first occasion of Mencius' mourning was, it is said, on the death of his father. But according to the received accounts Mencius' father died when he was only three years old. We must suppose that the favourite invented the account that he gave.

Par. 2. The tripods here mentioned contained the offerings of meat used in the funeral, sacrificial rites. The king used nine, a feudal prince seven, a great officer five, and a scholar or inferior officer three. To each tripod belonged its appropriate kind of flesh.

BOOK II.

KUNG-SUN CH'OW. PART I.

CHAPTER I. 1. Kung-sun Ch'ow said, "Master, if you were to obtain the ordering of the government in Ts'e, could you promise yourself the accomplishment of such successful results as were realized by Kwan Chung and the minister Gan?"

2. Mencius said, "You, Sir, are indeed a [true] man of Ts'e. You know about Kwan Chung and the minister Gan, and nothing more.

3. "One asked Tsǎng Se, saying, 'To which, my [good] Sir, do you give the superiority,-to yourself or to Tsze-loo? Tsang Se looked uneasy, and said, 'He was an object of veneration to my grandfather.' Then,' pursued the man, 'do you give the superiority to yourself, or to Kwan Chung?' Tsăng Se flushed with anger, was displeased, and said, 'How do you compare me to Kwan Chung? Considering how entirely he possessed [the confidence of] his ruler, how long he had the direction of the government of the State, and how low [after all] was what he accomplished, how is it that you compare me to him?'

4. "Thus," added Mencius, "Tsăng Se would not play

TITLE OF THIS BOOK. The name of Kung-sun Ch'ow, one of Mencius' disciples, heading the first chapter, the Book is named from him accordingly. CH. I. WHILE MENCIUS WISHED TO SEE A TRUE ROYAL GOVERNMENT, AND COULD EASILY HAVE REALIZED IT HAD HE BEEN IN OFFICE, SO THAT THE KING OF TS'E WOULD SOON HAVE BECOME SOVEREIGN OF THE WHOLE KINGDOM FROM THE PECULIAR CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE TIME, HE WOULD NOT HAVE HAD RECOURSE TO ANY WAYS INCONSISTENT WITH ITS IDEA.

Par. 1. It appears from par. 2 that Kung-sun Ch'ow was a native of Ts'e. He must have been a cadet of the old ducal family. The sons of the feudal princes were styled Kung-tsze, and their sons again Kung-sun, "ducal grandsons." Those two characters might become the surname of their descendants, who mingled with the undistinguished masses of the people. Kwan Chung,-see on Ana. III. xxii. ; et al. He was the chief minister of duke Hwan, the famous leader of all the feudal princes. The minister Gan, see on Ana. V. xvi.; et al. He was mentioned above in Book I. ii. IV. Par. 3. Tsång Se was, according to some, the son, according to others, the grandson of Tsång Sin, one of Confucius' most famous disciples. With Sin and with Tsze-loo the readers of the Analects must be familiar.

Kwan Chung, and is it what you desire for me, that I should do so?"

5. [Kung-sun Ch'ow] said, "Kwan Chung raised his ruler to be the leader of all the other princes, and the minister Gan made his ruler illustrious; and do you still think that it would not be enough for you to do what they did?"

6. "To raise [the ruler of] Ts'e to the Royal dignity would [simply] be like turning round the hand," was the reply.

7. "So!" returned the other. "The perplexity of your disciple is hereby very much increased! And there was king Wăn, with all the virtue which belonged to him, and who did not die till he had reached a hundred years; yet his influence had not penetrated to all under heaven. It required king Woo and the duke of Chow to continue his course, before that influence greatly prevailed. And now you say that the Royal dignity may be so easily obtained :is king Wǎn then not worthy to be imitated?"

:

8. [Mencius] said, "How can king Wăn be matched? From Tang to Woo-ting there had arisen six or seven worthy and sage sovereigns; all under heaven had been long attached to Yin. The length of time made a change difficult, and Woo-ting gave audience to all the princes and possessed the whole kingdom, as if it had been a thing which he turned round in his palm. [Then] Chow was removed from Woo-ting by no great interval of time. There were still remaining some of the ancient families, and of the old manners, of the influence which had emanated [from the earlier sovereigns], and of their good government. More

Par. 6. Here Mencius states his thesis, according to his fashion, in the broadest and most unlimited manner;—giving him the opportunity to explain and vindicate it as he does below.

Par. 7. King Wån died at the age of 97 ;-Ch'ow uses the round number 100. According to the representations of Chinese writers two-thirds of the kingdom then acknowledged his supremacy. His son king Woo continued his work, and overthrew the dynasty of Shang, while another son, the duke of Chow, regulated the constitution and all the ceremonies of the new dynasty; and then the principles of Wån received their full development.

Par. 8. From T'ang to Woo-ting there were altogether 18 sovereigns, or, according to the Bamboo Annals, 20, exclusive of themselves; and from Woo-ting to Chow there were seven. In the former period T'ae-këah, T'aemow, Ts'oo-yih, and Pwan-kǎng are specified as worthy and sage," in addition to Tang and Woo-ting. From Woo-ting to Chow there elapsed about a century and a quarter. The viscount of Wei was an elder brother of

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