I have brought
shame on my departed predecessors, and wish on their account to wipe it
away once for all. What course is to be pursued to accomplish this?"
Mencius replied, "With a territory only a hundred li square it has been
possible to obtain the Royal dignity. If your Majesty will indeed
dispense a benevolent government to the people, being sparing in the use
of punishments and fines, and making the taxes and levies of produce
light, so causing that the fields shall be ploughed deep, and the
weeding well attended to, and that the able-bodied, during their days of
leisure, shall cultivate their filial piety, fraternal duty,
faithfulness, and truth, serving thereby, at home, their fathers and
elder brothers, and, abroad, their elders and superiors, you will then
have a people who can be employed with sticks which they have prepared
to oppose the strong buff-coats and sharp weapons of the troops of Ts'in
and Ts'oo.
"The rulers of those States rob their people of their time, so that they
cannot plough and weed their fields in order to support their parents.
Parents suffer from cold and hunger; elder and younger brothers, wives
and children, are separated and scattered abroad. Those rulers drive
their people into pitfalls or into the water; and your Majesty will go
to punish them. In such a case, who will oppose your Majesty? In
accordance with this is the saying, 'The benevolent has no enemy!' I beg
your Majesty not to doubt what I said.
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