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Mencius: People
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Mencius had an audience with King Hui of Liang. The king said, "Sir, you did not consider a thousand li too far to come You must have some ideas about how to benefit my state." Mencius replied, "Why must Your Majesty use the word 'benefit'' All I am concerned with are the benevolent and the right. If Your Majesty says, 'How can I benefit my state?' your officials will say, 'How can I benefit my family,' and officers and common people will say, 'How can I benefit myself.' Once superiors and inferiors are cornpeting for benefit, the state will be in danger. When the head of a state of ten thousand chariots is murdered, the assassin is invariably a noble with a fief of a thousand chariots, When the head of a fief of a thousand chariots is murdered, the assassin is invariably head of a subfief of a hundred chariots. Those with a thousand out of ten thousand, or a hundred out of a thousand, had quite a bit. But when benefit is put before what is right, they are not satisfied without snatching it all.
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The first book of Mencius begins by describing his visit to King Hui of Liang in Wei; he ruled from 370 to 319 BC. The aged king assumed that Mencius came a long way because he believed he could bring profit to his state. Mencius replied that concern for profit is what imperils a state; all that matters is what is good and right. King Hui said he had worked hard in governing and asked why his population had not increased. Mencius told him that he was too fond of war. If he did not interfere with the busy seasons in the fields, then the people would have more grain to eat.
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Mencius said: "Humaneness brings glory and non-Humaneness brings disgrace. So if you hate disgrace but still involve yourself in what is not Humaneness, it is like hating moisture and living in a basement. If you really hate it, you should honor virtue and respect the good. Install good men into positions of rank and give jobs to people of ability. During the breaks in warfare, you should take the opportunity to clarify your governmental procedures and legal codes. If you do this, even larger states will have a healthy respect for you.
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Mencius compared goodness to water, which can overcome the cruelty of fire. Some try to put out a cartload of burning wood with a cup of water and then say water cannot overcome fire. To do this is to place one on the side of the most cruel; in the end they perish. The way is like a broad road that is not difficult to find. The problem is that people simply do not look for it. Those who do look for it will find enough teachers. Once Mencius met a man, who was going to Chu to persuade them that war was unprofitable.
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Mencius said, 'The trees of the Niu Mountain were once beautiful. But can the mountain be regarded any longer as beautiful since, being in the borders of a big state, the trees have been hewed down with axes and hatches? Still with the rest given them by the days and nights and the nourishment provided them by the rains and the dew, they were not without buds and sprouts springing forth. But then the cattle and the sheep pastured upon them once and again. That is why the mountain looks so bald. When people see that it is bald, they think that there was never any timber on the mountain.
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Challenging the carved wood metaphor, Mencius points out that in carving wood into a cup or bowl, one violates the wood's nature, which is to become a tree. Does one then violate a human being's nature by training him to be good? No, he says, it is possible to violate a human being's nature by making him bad, but his nature is to become good. As for the water metaphor, Mencius rejects it by remarking that human nature flows to the good, just as water's nature flows down. It is possible to make people bad, just as it is possible to make water flow up - but neither is a natural process or end. "Although man can be made to become bad, his nature remains as it was." (6A2)
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