"Now, if your Majesty will institute a government whose action shall all
be benevolent, this will cause all the officers in the kingdom to wish
to stand in your Majesty's court, the farmers all to wish to plough in
your Majesty's fields, the merchants, both travelling and stationary,
all to wish to store their goods in your Majesty's market-places,
travellers and visitors all to wish to travel on your Majesty's roads,
and all under heaven who feel aggrieved by their rulers to wish to come
and complain to your Majesty. When they are so bent, who will be able to
keep them back?"
The king said, "I am stupid and cannot advance to this. But I wish you,
my Master, to assist my intentions. Teach me clearly, and although I am
deficient in intelligence and vigor, I should like to try at least to
institute such a government."
Mencius replied, "They are only men of education, who, without a certain
livelihood, are able to maintain a fixed heart. As to the people, if
they have not a certain livelihood, they will be found not to have a
fixed heart. And if they have not a fixed heart, there is nothing which
they will not do in the way of self-abandonment, of moral deflection, of
depravity, and of wild license. When they have thus been involved in
crime, to follow them up and punish them, is to entrap the people. How
can such a thing as entrapping the people be done under the rule of a
benevolent man?"
"Therefore, an intelligent ruler will regulate the livelihood of the
people, so as to make sure that, above, they shall have sufficient
wherewith to serve their parents, and below, sufficient wherewith to
support their wives and children; that in good years they shall always
be abundantly satisfied, and that in bad years they shall not be in
danger of perishing.
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