Book 1A · King Hui of Liang, Part One

1.1 Mencius visited King Hui of Liang. The king said, “Venerable sir! You have come a thousand li without counting the distance. Surely you have something that will profit my state?”Mencius replied, “Your Majesty, why speak of profit? There is only humaneness and rightness. If the king says, ‘How may I profit my state?’ his ministers say, ‘How may I profit my house?’ and men of service and commoners say, ‘How may I profit myself?’ When high and low contend with one another for profit, the state is imperiled. In a state of ten thousand chariots, the one who murders its ruler will come from a house of a thousand chariots; in a state of a thousand chariots, from a house of a hundred. To possess a thousand out of ten thousand, or a hundred out of a thousand, is hardly a small share. But if one puts rightness last and profit first, nothing short of seizing everything will satisfy him. No humane person has ever abandoned his parents; no righteous person has ever slighted his ruler. Your Majesty should speak of humaneness and rightness alone. Why speak of profit?”

1.2 Mencius visited King Hui of Liang. Standing beside a pond, the king looked around at the wild geese and deer and said, “Do the worthy also take pleasure in such things?”Mencius replied, “Only the worthy can enjoy them; the unworthy, though they possess them, cannot. The Odes say:‘They laid out the Spirit Tower,Measured and planned its ground.The people joined in building it;Before a day had passed, it stood.They were told not to hurry the work;The people came as children to a father.The king was in the Spirit Park,Where does lay at rest;The does were glossy-coated,The white birds gleamed.The king was by the Spirit Pond;How full it was of leaping fish!’King Wen built his tower and pond with the labor of his people, and the people delighted in them: they called his tower the Spirit Tower and his pond the Spirit Pond, and rejoiced that he had deer, fish, and turtles. The ancients shared their pleasures with the people, and so could truly enjoy them. The Oath of Tang says, ‘When will this sun perish? I will perish with you!’ The people wished to perish together with that ruler. Though he had terraces and ponds, birds and beasts, how could he enjoy them alone?”

1.3 King Hui of Liang said, “I devote all my heart to my state. When famine strikes west of the river, I move its people east of the river and send grain west; when famine strikes east of the river, I do likewise. Looking at the government of neighboring states, none takes such pains as I do. Yet their populations do not diminish, while mine does not increase. Why?”Mencius replied, “Your Majesty delights in warfare; let me use warfare as an illustration. The drums thunder, the blades meet, and soldiers abandon their armor and flee, dragging their weapons. Some stop after a hundred paces, some after fifty. What if those who ran fifty paces laughed at those who ran a hundred?”The king said, “They cannot. They simply did not run a hundred paces; they too ran away.”Mencius said, “If Your Majesty understands this, do not expect your population to outnumber your neighbors’. Do not interfere with the farming seasons, and there will be more grain than can be eaten. Keep fine-meshed nets out of the ponds, and there will be more fish and turtles than can be eaten. Let axes enter the hills and forests only in season, and there will be more timber than can be used. With grain, fish, and turtles beyond their needs, and timber beyond their use, the people will nourish the living and bury the dead without regret. This is the beginning of the Kingly Way. Plant mulberry trees around a five-mu homestead, and those of fifty can wear silk. Raise chickens, piglets, dogs, and hogs without neglecting their breeding seasons, and those of seventy can eat meat. Do not take away the farming time from a hundred-mu field, and a family of several mouths need not go hungry. Attend carefully to the teaching in the schools; impress on the people their duty to parents and elder brothers, and gray-haired people will no longer carry loads along the roads. That the old should wear silk and eat meat, while ordinary people suffer neither hunger nor cold, and yet the ruler should fail to be king of the world—such a thing has never been. But dogs and hogs eat human food and no one restrains them; starving bodies lie by the roads and no one opens the granaries. When people die, one says, ‘It was not I; it was the harvest.’ How is this different from stabbing a man to death and saying, ‘It was not I; it was the blade’? Your Majesty, do not blame the harvest, and the people of the world will come to you.”

1.4 King Hui of Liang said, “I would gladly receive your teaching.”Mencius replied, “Is there any difference between killing a man with a club and killing him with a blade?”“No difference.”“Is there any difference between killing him with a blade and killing him through government?”“No difference.”Mencius said, “There is rich meat in your kitchens and fat horses in your stables; the people look hungry, and starving bodies lie in the fields. This is leading beasts to devour human beings. People loathe it even when beasts eat one another. If a ruler who governs as the people's father and mother cannot avoid leading beasts to devour people, in what sense is he their father and mother? Confucius said, ‘May the first man who made burial effigies have no descendants!’ He said this because the figures resembled human beings and were put to such use. How, then, can anyone cause his people to starve to death?”

1.5 King Hui of Liang said, “No state under Heaven was stronger than Jin, as you know, sir. But in my time we were defeated by Qi in the east, where my eldest son died; in the west we lost seven hundred li of land to Qin; and in the south Chu humiliated us. I am ashamed of this, and for the sake of the dead I wish to wipe away the disgrace. What must I do?”Mencius replied, “Even with a territory of a hundred li square, one can become king of the world. If Your Majesty extends humane government to the people, reduces punishments, lightens taxes, and lets them plow deep and weed thoroughly, the strong can use their spare days to cultivate devotion to parents and elder brothers, loyalty, and trustworthiness—serving their fathers and elder brothers at home and their elders and superiors abroad. They could then fashion clubs and beat the strong armor and sharp weapons of Qin and Chu. Those rulers steal the time their people need to cultivate their fields and support their parents. Parents freeze and starve; brothers, wives, and children are scattered. Those rulers plunge their people into misery. If Your Majesty goes to punish them, who will stand against you? Thus it is said, ‘The humane have no enemies.’ Do not doubt it, Your Majesty.”

1.6 Mencius visited King Xiang of Liang. On leaving, he told someone, “From a distance he did not look like a ruler; when I came close, I saw nothing that inspired respect. Abruptly he asked, ‘How can the world be settled?’ I answered, ‘By uniting it.’ ‘Who can unite it?’ he asked. I replied, ‘One who does not delight in killing people can unite it.’ ‘Who will support him?’ I replied, ‘Everyone under Heaven will support him. Does Your Majesty know the young shoots of grain? If there is drought in the seventh and eighth months, they wither. When clouds gather thickly and rain pours down, they spring up vigorously. Once that happens, who can hold them back? Now among the shepherds of the people throughout the world, there is not one who does not delight in killing. If there were one who did not delight in killing, the people of the whole world would crane their necks in expectation of him. If this truly happened, the people would turn to him like water rushing downhill. Who could hold back that flood?’”

1.7 King Xuan of Qi asked, “May I hear about the affairs of Duke Huan of Qi and Duke Wen of Jin?”Mencius replied, “Among Confucius's followers no one spoke of the affairs of Huan and Wen, so nothing about them has come down to later generations; I have heard nothing of them. If I must speak, let it be about becoming a true king.”“What kind of virtue enables one to become a king?”“Protect the people and become king: no one can withstand you.”“Can a man like me protect the people?”“Yes.”“How do you know I can?”“I heard from Hu He that once, as Your Majesty sat in the hall, a man led an ox past below. Seeing it, you said, ‘Where is the ox going?’ He answered, ‘To consecrate a bell with its blood.’ Your Majesty said, ‘Release it! I cannot bear to see it trembling, like an innocent creature being led to its death.’ The man asked, ‘Then shall we dispense with the consecration of the bell?’ You answered, ‘How can we dispense with it? Substitute a sheep.’ Did this happen?”“It did.”“That heart is enough to make you king. The people all supposed Your Majesty was being stingy, but I knew you could not bear its suffering.”The king said, “Yes, there really are people who think that. Though Qi is small, would I begrudge one ox? I could not bear to see it trembling, as an innocent creature going to its death. That is why I substituted a sheep.”“Your Majesty need not be surprised that the people thought you stingy. Replacing the large with the small—how could they know your reason? If you pitied its innocent passage to death, what distinction could there be between ox and sheep?”The king laughed. “What was truly in my heart? I did not replace it with a sheep to save its cost. No wonder the people called me stingy.”“There is no harm in that. It is the way of humaneness: you had seen the ox but had not seen the sheep. When a noble person sees animals alive, he cannot bear to see them die; when he hears their cries, he cannot bear to eat their flesh. That is why a noble person stays far from the kitchen.”The king was pleased. “The Odes say, ‘What lies in another's heart, I can discern.’ That describes you, Master. I acted, but on looking back and searching my heart, I could not understand it. Your words have stirred something in my heart. How does this heart of mine accord with kingship?”“Suppose someone reported to Your Majesty, ‘I have strength enough to lift a hundred jun but cannot lift a single feather; sight keen enough to see the tip of an autumn hair, but cannot see a cartload of firewood.’ Would you believe him?”“No.”“Your compassion now reaches beasts, but its benefits do not reach the people. Why? A feather goes unlifted because strength is not used; a cartload of firewood goes unseen because sight is not used; the people go unprotected because compassion is not used. Your Majesty does not become king because you do not act, not because you cannot.”“How can one distinguish the appearance of refusing to act from that of being unable?”“To carry Mount Tai under one's arm and leap over the North Sea, and tell someone, ‘I cannot do it,’ is truly to be unable. To bend a branch for an elder and say, ‘I cannot do it,’ is to refuse, not to be unable. Your Majesty's failure to become king is not like carrying Mount Tai across the North Sea; it is like bending a branch. Treat your own elders as elders, and extend that care to the elders of others; treat your own young as young, and extend that care to the young of others. Then you can govern the world as easily as turning your palm. The Odes say, ‘He set the pattern for his wife, extended it to his brothers, and so governed household and state.’ This speaks only of taking this heart and applying it to others. Extend your compassion, and it is enough to protect all within the four seas; fail to extend it, and you cannot even protect your wife and children. The ancients excelled others in no other respect than this: they knew how to extend what they did. Why, then, does your compassion reach beasts, but its benefits fail to reach the people? Weigh something, and only then can you know its weight; measure it, and only then can you know its length. So it is with all things, and most of all the heart. I ask Your Majesty to measure yours. Or will you be satisfied only after raising armored troops, endangering your officers and ministers, and provoking enmity among the lords?”The king said, “No. How could that satisfy me? I seek to achieve my greatest desire.”“May I hear what Your Majesty most desires?”The king smiled without speaking.“Is it because rich food does not satisfy your mouth? Because light, warm clothing does not satisfy your body? Because bright colors do not suffice for your eyes, or music for your ears? Because your attendants are not enough to carry out your commands? Your ministers can provide all these. Surely these are not what you seek?”“No. These are not my reason.”“Then your great desire is plain: to enlarge your territory, receive Qin and Chu at your court, rule the central states, and pacify the peoples on the four borders. To seek such ends by the means you now employ is like climbing a tree in search of fish.”“Is it really as bad as that?”“Worse. Climb a tree for fish, and though you catch none, no calamity follows. Pursue your desire by your present means, and however fully you spend your strength and heart on it, calamity will surely follow.”“May I hear why?”“If the people of Zou fought the people of Chu, who would win, in Your Majesty's judgment?”“The people of Chu.”“So the small cannot withstand the large, the few cannot withstand the many, and the weak cannot withstand the strong. Within the seas there are nine tracts each a thousand li square; Qi gathers in its possession one of them. To subdue eight with one—how is this different from Zou opposing Chu? You must return to the root instead. If Your Majesty institutes humane government, all the men of service in the world will wish to stand in your court, its farmers to till your fields, its merchants to store goods in your markets, its travelers to pass along your roads, and all who resent their rulers to bring their complaints before you. If this comes to pass, who could withstand you?”The king said, “I am muddled and cannot advance so far. I ask you, Master, to help me set my purpose and teach me clearly. Though I am slow of understanding, let me try.”Mencius said, “Only men of service can maintain a steadfast heart without a secure livelihood. As for ordinary people, without a secure livelihood they have no steadfast heart. Once they lose their steadfast heart, there is nothing reckless, perverse, depraved, or extravagant that they will not do. When they have fallen into crime and only then one punishes them, one has trapped the people. How could a humane man in power trap the people? Thus an enlightened ruler provides the people with a livelihood that lets them support their parents above and nourish wives and children below, eat their fill throughout prosperous years and escape death in years of famine. Only then does he guide them toward goodness, and the people follow easily. Today the livelihood provided for the people does not allow them to support their parents or nourish wives and children. Even in prosperous years they toil in misery; in famine years they cannot escape death. They fear they lack even the means to survive: how can they find the leisure to cultivate ritual propriety and rightness? If Your Majesty wishes to put this into practice, why not return to the root? Plant mulberry trees on a five-mu homestead, and those of fifty can wear silk. Raise chickens, piglets, dogs, and hogs without neglecting their breeding seasons, and those of seventy can eat meat. Do not steal the farming season from a hundred-mu field, and a family of eight need not go hungry. Attend carefully to education in the schools and impress upon people their duty to parents and elder brothers, and gray-haired people will no longer bear loads along the roads. That the old should wear silk and eat meat, the people suffer neither hunger nor cold, and yet the ruler fail to become king of the world—such a thing has never been.”

1.1 Mencius visited King Hui of Liang. The king said, “Elder, you have come a thousand li without thinking the journey too far. Surely you have some way to benefit my state?”Mencius replied, “King, why speak of benefit? There is only kindness and rightness. If the king says, ‘How can I benefit my state?’ his officials will say, ‘How can I benefit my household?’ and men of service and ordinary people will say, ‘How can I benefit myself?’ When high and low compete for benefit, the state is in danger. In a state with ten thousand war chariots, the household that kills its ruler will have a thousand chariots; in a state with a thousand chariots, the household that kills its ruler will have a hundred. A thousand out of ten thousand, or a hundred out of a thousand, is quite a lot. But if people put rightness last and benefit first, they will not be satisfied until they have taken everything. No kind person has ever abandoned his parents, and no person who does what is right has ever treated his ruler as unimportant. King, speak only of kindness and rightness. Why speak of benefit?”

1.2 Mencius visited King Hui of Liang. The king stood beside a pond and looked at the wild geese and deer. He said, “Do wise people also enjoy things like this?”Mencius replied, “Only wise people can enjoy them. People who are not wise cannot enjoy them even if they have them. The Book of Songs says, ‘They marked out the Spirit Terrace; they measured and planned it. The people built it and finished it in less than a day. When the work began, there was no hurry, but the people came like children coming to a parent. The king was in the Spirit Park, where the does lay down. The does looked sleek; the white birds looked brilliant. The king was at the Spirit Pond, full of leaping fish.’ King Wen used the people's labor to build the terrace and pond, but they were happy about them. They called his terrace the Spirit Terrace and his pond the Spirit Pond, and enjoyed the deer, fish, and turtles there. People of old enjoyed such things together with their people, and that is why they could enjoy them. The Oath of Tang says, ‘When will this sun perish? I will perish with you.’ If the people want to perish together with their ruler, how could he enjoy his terraces, ponds, birds, and animals all by himself?”

1.3 King Hui of Liang said, “I have done all I can for my state. When there is a famine in Henei, I move its people to Hedong and send grain back to Henei; when there is a famine in Hedong, I do the same. Looking at how neighboring states are governed, I see no ruler who takes as much care as I do. Why do their people not grow fewer and my people not grow more numerous?”Mencius replied, “You like war, so let me use war as an example. The drums sound loudly, the weapons meet, and some soldiers throw down their armor and flee, dragging their weapons. Some stop after a hundred paces; others after fifty. What would you think of those who ran fifty paces laughing at those who ran a hundred?”The king said, “They cannot do that. They simply did not go a hundred paces, but they still ran away.”Mencius said, “If you understand that, do not expect to have more people than the neighboring states. If you do not interrupt the farming season, there will be more grain than people can eat. If closely woven nets are kept out of ponds, there will be more fish and turtles than people can eat. If axes are taken into the forests only at the proper times, there will be more timber than people can use. With enough grain, fish, turtles, and timber, people can support the living and bury the dead without regrets. That is the beginning of the Kingly Way. Plant mulberries on a household plot of five mu, and people of fifty can wear silk. Raise chickens, young pigs, dogs, and hogs at the proper times, and people of seventy can eat meat. Do not take away the farming time for a hundred-mu field, and a family of several will not go hungry. Attend carefully to teaching in the local schools, and teach again the duties of children toward parents and younger siblings toward older ones. Then gray-haired people will not have to carry loads on the roads. When seventy-year-olds wear silk and eat meat and ordinary people are neither hungry nor cold, no ruler has failed to become king over all. Yet dogs and hogs eat human food and you do nothing to stop it; people starve to death on the roads and you do not open your stores. When people die you say, ‘It wasn't me; it was the harvest.’ How is that different from stabbing a person to death and saying, ‘It wasn't me; it was the weapon’? If you do not blame the harvest, the people of the world will come to you.”

1.4 King Hui of Liang said, “I would gladly receive your teaching.”Mencius replied, “Is there a difference between killing someone with a stick and killing someone with a blade?”“No difference,” the king said.“Is there a difference between killing with a blade and killing through government?”“No difference.”Mencius said, “There is rich meat in your kitchen and fat horses in your stables, while the people look hungry and there are bodies of people who starved in the fields. This is like leading animals to eat people. People hate it even when animals eat one another. If a ruler, who should care for his people like a parent, governs by leading animals to eat people, how can he be a parent to them? Confucius said, ‘May the person who first made human-shaped burial figures have no descendants!’ He said this because they looked like people and were used in burials. How, then, could anyone let these real people starve to death?”

1.5 King Hui of Liang said, “As you know, no state in the world was stronger than Jin. But during my rule we were defeated by Qi in the east, where my eldest son died; in the west we lost seven hundred li of land to Qin; in the south Chu humiliated us. I am ashamed of this and want to wash away the disgrace for those who died. How can I do it?”Mencius replied, “Even with a territory only a hundred li square, you could become king over all. If you govern your people with kindness, reduce punishments, lower taxes, and let them plow deeply and weed carefully, the young men will have free days to learn respect for parents and older siblings, loyalty, and trustworthiness. At home they will serve their fathers and older brothers, and outside it their elders and superiors. Then you can have them make sticks and beat the hard armor and sharp weapons of Qin and Chu. Those rulers steal their people's farming time so that they cannot plow and weed to support their parents. Their parents freeze and starve, and their brothers, wives, and children are scattered. They plunge their people into misery. If you go to punish them, who will stand against you? That is why people say, ‘A kind ruler has no enemies.’ Please do not doubt it.”

1.6 Mencius visited King Xiang of Liang. After leaving, he told someone, “From a distance, he did not look like a ruler, and close up, there was nothing about him to inspire respect. Suddenly he asked me, ‘How will the world be brought to peace?’ I answered, ‘By being united under one ruler.’ He asked, ‘Who can unite it?’ I answered, ‘Someone who does not enjoy killing people.’ He asked, ‘Who would support him?’ I answered, ‘Everyone in the world would support him. Do you know what happens to seedlings? When there is drought in the seventh and eighth months, they wither. But when clouds gather thickly and heavy rain falls, they spring up again. Who can hold them back when that happens? Today, among the rulers who shepherd the people of the world, not one does not enjoy killing. If there were one who did not enjoy killing people, all the people in the world would stretch their necks to look for him. If that really happened, people would flock to him like water running downhill in a flood. Who could hold them back?’”

1.7 King Xuan of Qi asked, “Can you tell me about Duke Huan of Qi and Duke Wen of Jin?”Mencius replied, “Confucius's followers did not talk about the deeds of Huan and Wen. That is why no account of them was handed down to later generations, and I have not heard one. If you do not insist on that, shall we talk about ruling as a true king?”“What kind of virtue does it take to be a true king?”“Care for the people, and no one can stop you from being king.”“Can someone like me care for the people?”“Yes.”“How do you know?”“I heard this from Hu He: You were seated in the hall when someone led an ox past it. You saw the ox and asked, ‘Where is that ox going?’ The answer was, ‘We are going to use its blood to consecrate a bell.’ You said, ‘Let it go! I cannot bear to see it trembling like that, as though it were innocent but going to be put to death.’ The man asked, ‘Then should we give up consecrating the bell?’ You said, ‘How could we give it up? Use a sheep instead!’ Did this happen?”“Yes.”“That feeling is enough for you to be king. The people all thought you were being stingy, but I knew you could not bear to see the ox suffer.”The king said, “Yes. Some people really did think that. Though Qi is a small state, why would I begrudge one ox? I used a sheep instead because I could not bear to see the ox trembling like an innocent creature going to its death.”Mencius said, “Do not be surprised that the people thought you were stingy. You replaced a larger animal with a smaller one; how could they know why? If what troubled you was an innocent creature being led to its death, what difference was there between the ox and the sheep?”The king laughed. “What was I really feeling? I did not replace it with a sheep because I wanted to save money. No wonder people called me stingy.”“There is no harm in that. This is a way to practice kindness: you saw the ox but had not seen the sheep. When a noble person sees an animal alive, he cannot bear to see it die; when he hears its cries, he cannot bear to eat its meat. That is why he stays away from the kitchen.”The king was pleased and said, “The Book of Songs says, ‘Another person has a thought, and I can guess it.’ It must mean you. I did what I did, but when I looked back and tried to find my reason, I could not understand my own heart. Now you have explained it and it feels right to me. Why does this feeling make me fit to be king?”Mencius said, “Suppose a man told you, ‘I am strong enough to lift a hundred jun, but not a feather; my eyesight can make out the tip of a hair in autumn, but I cannot see a cartload of firewood.’ Would you believe him?”“No.”“Then why does your kindness reach animals but its benefits do not reach the people? If a feather is not lifted, it is because the man has not used his strength. If a cartload of firewood is not seen, he has not used his eyesight. If the people are not cared for, it is because you have not used your kindness. So you are not ruling as a true king because you will not do it, not because you cannot.”“What is the difference between what someone will not do and what he cannot do?”“If someone said, ‘I cannot carry Mount Tai under my arm and leap over the North Sea,’ he really could not. But if he said, ‘I cannot bend a branch for an elder,’ he simply would not do it; it is not beyond his ability. Your failure to be a true king is not like carrying Mount Tai across the North Sea. It is like bending a branch for an elder. Treat your own elderly relatives with care, then extend that care to other elderly people; treat your own children with care, then extend it to other children. Then governing the world will be as easy as turning your hand over. The Book of Songs says, ‘He set an example for his wife, passed it on to his brothers, and so governed his family and state.’ That means simply taking the same feeling and extending it to others. If you extend your kindness, you can care for everyone within the four seas; if you do not, you cannot even care for your own wife and children. The people of old were far better than others for no other reason than their skill in extending what they already did. Why, then, does your kindness reach animals but its benefits do not reach the people? Weigh something and then you know how heavy it is; measure it and then you know how long it is. This applies to everything, but especially to the heart. Please consider this. Or is it only after raising an army, putting your officers and soldiers in danger, and making enemies of other rulers that you will feel satisfied?”The king said, “No. How could that satisfy me? I mean to achieve what I most want.”“May I hear what you most want?”The king laughed and said nothing.“Is it because your mouth lacks rich, delicious food, your body lacks light, warm clothes, your eyes lack bright colors to see, your ears lack music to hear, or you lack favored attendants to serve you? Your ministers can provide all those. Surely that cannot be your reason?”“No, that is not why I do it.”“Then I know your greatest wish: to expand your territory, make Qin and Chu come to pay court to you, rule the central states, and bring the surrounding peoples under your control. Trying to get that by doing what you do now is like climbing a tree to catch a fish.”“Is it really that bad?”“It is worse. Climbing a tree to catch a fish will not get you a fish, but there will be no disaster afterward. If you put all your heart and strength into pursuing your goal by your present methods, disaster will certainly follow.”“Can you explain?”“If the people of Zou fought the people of Chu, who would win?”“Chu would win.”“So a small state cannot stand against a large one, a few cannot stand against many, and the weak cannot stand against the strong. Within the seas there are nine territories each a thousand li square; Qi has only one of them. Using one to force the other eight into submission is no different from Zou fighting Chu. Instead, go back to the root of the matter. If you now govern kindly, all who want to serve in office will want a place at your court; farmers will want to farm in your fields; merchants will want to store goods in your markets; travelers will want to take your roads; and anyone in the world who resents his ruler will want to come and appeal to you. If that happened, who could stop it?”The king said, “I am confused and cannot make my way further. I want you to support my intentions and teach me clearly. I may be slow to understand, but please let me try.”Mencius said, “Only men of service can have steady hearts without a steady livelihood. When ordinary people have no steady livelihood, they have no steady hearts. Without steady hearts, there is nothing they will not do: abandon all restraint, go astray, and commit crimes. To let them fall into crime and then punish them is to set a trap for the people. How could a kind ruler set traps for the people? A wise ruler therefore makes sure his people have a livelihood sufficient to support their parents and provide for their wives and children. In good years they eat their fill, and in bad years they escape death. Only then does he guide them toward good conduct; it is easy for them to follow. But the way livelihoods are arranged today does not give people enough to support their parents or provide for their wives and children. Even in good years they suffer all year, and in bad years they cannot escape death. They fear they will not even be able to save their lives. How could they find the time to attend to proper conduct and rightness? If you want to put this into practice, why not return to the root? Plant mulberry trees on a household plot of five mu, so people of fifty can wear silk. Raise chickens, young pigs, dogs, and hogs at the right times, so people of seventy can eat meat. Do not take away the farming time for a hundred-mu field, so a family of eight will not go hungry. Attend carefully to the teaching in the local schools and teach the duties of children toward parents and younger siblings toward older ones, so gray-haired people will not have to carry loads on the roads. When elderly people wear silk and eat meat, and ordinary people are neither hungry nor cold, no ruler has failed to become king over all.”