Mencius - Mencius

Translated with an Introduction and Notes by
D. C. LAU

REVISED EDITION

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This translation first published in Penguin Classics 1970
Revised edition first published by the Chinese University Press 2003
Published in Penguin Classics 2004
6

Copyright D. C. Lau, 1970, 2003
All rights reserved

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EISBN: 9781101489543

Only two Chinese philosophers have the distinction of being known consistently to the West by a latinized name. The first is Confucius. The second is Mencius, whose name is Meng Ke. That Mencius should share the distinction is by no means an insignificant fact, for he is without doubt second only to Confucius in importance in the Confucian tradition, a fact officially recognized in China for over a thousand years. There are various reasons for this. First, the Analects of Confucius which forms almost the only reliable source of our knowledge of the thought of Confucius consists of a collection of sayings of the sage, mostly brief and often with little or no context. Hence many ideas are not elaborated upon, leaving a good deal of room for differences in interpretation. The Mencius, too, consists of sayings of Mencius and conversations he had with his contemporaries, but these tend to be of greater length and there is often some kind of a context. The ideas are, therefore, more articulate. Thus the Mencius, when read side by side with the Analects of Confucius, throws a great deal of light on the latter work. Second, Mencius developed some of the ideas of Confucius and at the same time discussed problems not touched on by Confucius. It is not an exaggeration to say that what is called Confucianism in subsequent times contains as much of the thought of Mencius as of Confucius.

The only other great name in early Confucianism is that of Hsn Tzu who was half a century or so later than Mencius. He developed Confucianism in a way radically different from that of Mencius, and we shall have occasion to mention him when we come to discuss the philosophical thought of Mencius. It is he looked to Mencius as much for his superb style as for his sound philosophy. Second, from the Sung onwards, the philosophy of Mencius became the orthodoxy while Hsn Tzu was almost totally eclipsed. The Great Learning, the Doctrine of the Mean, the Analects of Confucius, together with the Mencius, became known as the Four Books which, until the present century, were read and memorized by every schoolboy in his first years at school. Thus the position and influence of Mencius were assured.

As with most ancient Chinese thinkers, little is known of the life of Mencius other than what we can glean from the work bearing his name. True, there is a biography It is difficult to say how much credence can be given to these traditions, but they attained wide currency and great popularity as cautionary tales.

It is to the Mencius, therefore, that we must look if we wish to find out something about Mencius life. The Mencius is divided into seven books, the titles of which are of no significance as they are all simply taken from the opening sentence of the books and, with the exception of the last book, are all names of persons with whom Mencius had conversations. There is no indication that any method for the grouping of the sections was followed by the editor, though Book V Part A, for instance, consists solely of questions and answers concerning history. There is, however, one exception, and that is Book I. There the sections are arranged chronologically, and it is this book that furnishes us with some precise dates. In I. A. 5, King Hui of Liang mentions his defeats by Chi to the east, by Chin to the west, and by Chu to the south. The defeat by Chi was at Ma Ling in 341 BC. From that year onwards, for the next twenty years, Liang suffered a series of defeats at the hands of Chin. The humiliation inflicted by Chu was in 323 BC. As King Hui died in 319 BC, the meeting with Mencius must have fallen within the period 323 to 319 BC. With the death of King Hui, King Hsiang succeeded him and 1. A. 6 records an interview with the new king. Mencius must have left Liang for Chi soon afterwards, finding King Hsiang lacking in the dignity befitting a king. In the next section we find a conversation with King Hsan of Chi who had just succeeded his father, King Wei, in 320. The sections, from 1. A. 7 to 1. B. 11, are concerned with King Hsan, and 1. B. 10 and 1. B. 11 both deal with the invasion of Yen by Chi in 314 BC. This same event is also dealt with in 11. B. 8 and 11. B. 9, and this part of Book II seems also to be in chronological order. In 11. B. 14 we find Mencius explaining to a questioner that after his first meeting with the king he had no intention of staying in Chi, but it so happened that war broke out and I had no opportunity of requesting permission to leave. This almost certainly refers to the war with Yen, and Mencius must have left shortly after hostilities came to an end. To return to Book I, the remaining chapters of the book record conversations with Duke Mu of Tsou, Duke Wen of Teng and finally with Duke Ping of Lu. It seems likely that after he left Chi Mencius stopped in Tsou and Teng on his way to Lu. We know nothing of Mencius after this. He probably lived out his last years in retirement in Lu.