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Let us continue with selections from “Mencius,” translated into English by James Legge, in which the Venerated Enlightened Philosopher Mencius expounds on the perils of war to His Majesty King Hûi of Liang.“Mencius stated, ‘If the seasons of planting are not interfered with, the grain will be more than can be eaten. […] This enables the people to nourish their living and mourn for their dead, without any feeling against any. This condition, in which the people nourish their living and bury their dead without any feeling against any, is the first step of royal government. Let mulberry trees be planted about the homesteads […]. Let there not be taken away the time that is proper for the cultivation of the farm with its hundred mâ, and the family of several mouths that is supported by it shall not suffer from hunger. Let careful attention be paid to education in schools, inculcating in it especially the filial and fraternal duties, and grey-haired men will not be seen upon the roads, carrying burdens on their backs or on their heads. It never has been that the ruler of a State, where such results were seen, […] the black-haired people suffering neither from hunger nor cold, did not attain to the royal dignity. […] There are people dying from famine on the roads, and You do not issue the stores of Your granaries for them. When people die, You say, “It is not owing to me; it is owing to the year.” In what does this differ from stabbing a man and killing him, and then saying, “It was not I; it was the weapon”? Let your Majesty cease to lay the blame on the year, and instantly from all the nation the people will come to You.’ […]King Hûi of Liang said, ‘There was not in the nation a stronger State than Tsin, as You, venerable Sir, know. But since it descended to me, on the east we have been defeated by Ch’i, and then my eldest son perished; on the west we have lost seven hundred lî of territory to Ch’in; and on the south we have sustained disgrace at the hands of Ch’û. 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 which is only a hundred lî square, it is possible to attain to 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 light, so causing that the fields shall be ploughed deep, and the weeding of them be carefully attended to, and that the strong-bodied, during their days of leisure, shall cultivate their filial piety, fraternal respectfulness, sincerity, and truthfulness, 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 mail and sharp weapons of the troops of Ch’in and Ch’û. 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. Their parents suffer from cold and hunger. Brothers, wives, and children are separated and scattered abroad. Those rulers, as it were, drive their people into pit-falls, or drown them. 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 say.’”
