Mencius would not bow to the royal state; Hsuan would not vail bonnet to the philosopher's cloak. We have one amusing instance of the struggles to which this sometimes gave rise. One day Mencius was preparing to go to court of his own free will, when a messenger arrived from the king, saying he had intended to come and see him, but was prevented by a cold, and asking whether Mencius would not appear at the audience next morning. Mencius saw that this was a device on the part of the king to avoid stooping to visit him, and though he had been about to go to court, he replied at once that he was unwell. He did not hesitate to meet the king's falsehood with one of his own.

He did not wish, however, that the king should be ignorant of the truth, and went out next morning to pay a visit of condolence. He supposed that messengers would be sent from the court to inquire about his health, and that, when they took back word that he had gone out visiting, the king would understand how his sickness of the day before was only feigned.

It happened as he expected. The king sent a messenger, and his physician besides. Mencius being out, they were received by Măng Chung, either his son or cousin, who complicated the affair by an invention of his own. To-day,' he said, 'he was a little better, and hastened to go to court.

I don't know whether he has reached it by this time or not.' No sooner were the visitors gone with this story, than he sent several persons to look for the philosopher, and urge him to go to the court before he returned home.

It was now necessary that a full account of the matter should reach the royal ears; and to accomplish this, Mencius neither went home nor to court, but spent the night at the house of one of the high officers. They had an animated discussion. The officer accused Mencius of showing disrespect to the king. The philosopher replied that no man in Ch'î showed so much respect for the sovereign as he did, for it was only he who brought high and truly royal subjects under his notice.

'That,' said the officer, 'is not my meaning. The rule is—“ When the prince's order calls, the carriage must not be waited for." You were going to the court, but when you heard the king's message, you did not do so. This seems not in accordance with that rule.' Mencius explained:-'There are three things universally acknowledged to be honourable,-nobility, age, and virtue. In courts, nobility holds the first place; in villages, age; and for helping one's generation and

presiding over the people, the other two are not equal to virtue. The possession of one of the three does not authorise the despising of one who has the other two.

'A prince who is to accomplish great deeds will have ministers whom he does not call to go to see him. When he wishes to consult with them, he goes to them. The prince who does not honour the virtuous, and delight in their ways of doing, to this extent, is not worth having to do with.

'There was Tang with Î Yin :-he first learned of him, and then made him his minister; and so without difficulty he became sovereign. There was the duke Hwan with Kwan Chung:-he first learned of him, and then made him his minister; and so without difficulty he became chief of all the princes.

'So did Tang behave to Î Yin, and the duke Hwan to Kwan Chung, that they would not venture to call them to go to them. If Kwan Chung might not be called to him by his prince, how much less may I be called, who would not play the part of Kwan Chung1!'

We are to suppose that these sentiments were conveyed to the king by the officer with whom Mencius spent the night. It is a pity that the exposition of them could only be effected in such a roundabout manner, and was preceded by such acts of prevarication. But where the two parties were so suspicious of each other, we need not wonder that they separated before long. Mencius resigned his honorary appointment, and prepared to return to Tsâu. On this occasion king Hsuan visited him, and after some complimentary expressions asked whether he might expect to see him again. 'I dare not request permission to visit you at any particular time,' replied Mencius, but, indeed, it is what I desire.'

The king made another attempt to detain him, and sent an officer, called Shih, to propose to him to remain in the State, on the understanding that he should have a house large enough to accommodate his disciples, and an allowance of ten thousand measures of grain to support them. All Mencius's efforts had not sufficed to make king Hsuan and his ministers understand him. They thought he was really actuated like themselves by a desire for wealth. He indignantly rejected the proposal, and pointed out the folly of

Bk. II. Pt. II. ii. 1 Bk. II. Pt. II. x. I consider that this chapter, and others here referred to, belong to Mencius's first departure from Ch'i. I do so because we can hardly suppose that the king and his officers would not have understood him better by the end of his second residence. Moreover, while Mencius retires, his language in x. 2 and xi. 5. 6 is of such a nature that it leaves an opening for him to return again.

it, considering that he had already declined a hundred thousand measures in holding only an honorary appointment'.

So Mencius turned his back on Ch'i; but he withdrew with a slow and lingering step, stopping three nights in one place, to afford the king an opportunity to recall him on a proper understanding. Some reproached him with his hesitancy, but he sufficiently explained himself. The king,' he said, 'is, after all, one who may be made to do good. If he were to use me, would it be for the happiness of Ch'i only? It would be for the happiness of the people of the whole kingdom. I am hoping that the king will change; I am daily hoping for this.

'Am I like one of your little-minded people? They will remonstrate with their prince, and on their remonstrance not being accepted, they get angry, and, with their passion displayed in their countenance, they take their leave, and travel with all their strength for a whole day, before they will rest".'

Mencius in Tăng;—from his leaving Ch'i to B. C. 318.

7. After he left Ch'i, Mencius found a home for some time in the small principality of Tăng, on the south of Ch'î, in the ruler of which he had a sincere admirer and docile pupil. He did not proceed thither immediately, however, but seems to have taken his way to Sung, which consisted mostly of the present department of Kwei-tei in Ho-nan 3. There he was visited by the crown-prince of Tăng, who made a long detour, while on a journey to Ch'û, for the purpose of seeing him. The philosopher discoursed on the goodness of human nature, and the excellent ways of Yao and Shun. His hearer admired, but doubted. He could not forget, however, and the lessons which he received produced fruit before long.

'I have said in a note, Bk. II. Pt. II. x. 5, that 100,000 chung was the fixed allowance of a 鄉

=

which Mencius had declined to receive. When we look narrowly into the matter, however, we see that this could hardly be the case. It is known that four measures were used in Ch'i,—the ,,, and, and that a chung was ten jú, or six and four tâu. 10,000 chung would thus = 64,000 stone, and Mencius declined 640,000 stone of grain. No officer of Ch'i could have an income so much as that. The measures of the Han dynasty are ascertained to have been only one-fifth the capacity of the present. Assuming that those of Châu and Han agreed, and bringing the above computations to the present standard, Menci's was offered an annual amount of 13,800 stone of grain for his disciples, and he had himself refused in all 128,000 stone. With this reduction, and taking any grain we please as the standard of valuation, the amount is still much beyond what we can suppose to have been a 's salary.-— supposes that Mencius intends by 100,000 chung the sum of the income during all the years he had held his honorary office. 2 Bk. II. Pt. II. xii. "This is gathered from Bk. III. Pt. I. i. 1, where the crown-prince of Tăng visits Mencius, and from Bk. 11. Pt. II. iii, where his accepting a gift in Sung appears to have been subsequent to his refusing one in Ch'î.

From Sung Mencius returned to Tsâu, by way of Hsieh. In both Sung and Hsieh he accepted large gifts from the rulers, which help us in some measure to understand how he could maintain an expenditure which must have been great, and which gave occasion also for an ingenious exposition of the principles on which he guided his course among the princes. When you were in Ch't,' said one of his disciples, 'you refused a hundred yi of fine gold, which the king sent, while in Sung you accepted seventy yi, and in Hsieh fifty'. If you were right in refusing the gift in the first case, you did wrong in accepting it in the other two. If you were right in accepting it in those two cases, you were wrong in refusing it in Ch'i. You must accept one of these alternatives.' 'I did right in all the cases,' replied Mencius. 'When I was in Sung, I was about to undertake a long journey. Travellers must be provided with what is necessary for their expenses. The prince's message was-" a present against travelling expenses;" why should I have declined the gift? In Hsieh I was under apprehensions for my safety, and taking measures for my protection. The message was— "I have heard you are taking measures to protect yourself, and send this to help you in procuring arms." Why should I have declined the gift? But when I was in Ch'î, I had no occasion for money. To send a man a gift when he has no occasion for it is to bribe him. How is it possible that a superior man should be taken with a bribe2?'

Before Mencius had been long in Tsâu, the crown-prince of T'ăng succeeded to the rule of the principality, and calling to mind the lessons which he had heard in Sung, sent an officer to consult the philosopher on the manner in which he should perform the funeral and mourning services for his father. Mencius of course advised him to carry out in the strictest manner the ancient regulations. The new prince's relatives and the officers of the State opposed, but

1 I have supposed in the translation, Bk. II. Pt. II. iii. 1, that the metal of these gifts was silver and not gold., however, seems to make it clear that we ought to understand that

it was gold. (See 7Ƒ, p. 6.) Pressed with the

objection that 2,400 ounces of gold seems too large a sum, he goes on to make it appear that under the Ch'in dynasty, a yi or twenty-four ounces of gold was only equal to 15,000 cash, or fifteen taels of silver of the present day! This is a point on which I do not know that we can attain any positive certainty. 2 Bk. II. Pt. II. iii. 3 Bk. III. Pt. L. ii. The note of time which is relied on as enabling us to follow Mencius here is the intimation, Bk. I. Pt. II. xiv, that 'Ch'i was about to fortify Hsieh.' This is referred to B. c. 320, when king Hsüan appointsʊ his brother over the dependency of Hsieh, and took measures to fortify it.

ineffectually. Mencius's counsel was followed, and the effect was great. Duke Wan became an object of general admiration.

By and by Mencius proceeded himself to Tăng. We may suppose that he was invited thither by the prince as soon as the rules of mourning would allow his holding free communication with him. The chapters which give an account of their conversations are really interesting. Mencius recommended that attention should be chiefly directed to the encouragement of agriculture and education. He would have nourishment secured both for the body and the mind of every subject'. When the duke was lamenting the danger to which he was exposed from his powerful and encroaching neighbours, Mencius told him he might adopt one of two courses;-either leave his State, and like king Tâi go and find a settlement elsewhere, or be prepared to die for his patrimony. If you do good,' said he, among your descendants in after generations there will be one who shall attain to the royal dignity. But results are with Heaven. What is Ch'i to you, O prince? Be strong to do good. That is all your business 2.'

After all, nothing came of Mencius's residence in Tăng. We should like to know what made him leave it. Confucius said that, if any of the princes were to employ him, he should achieve something considerable in twelve months, and in the course of three years, the government would be perfected3. Mencius taught that, in his time, with half the merit of former days double the result might be accomplished. Here in Tăng a fair field seemed to be afforded him, but he was not able to make his promise good. Possibly the good purposes and docility of duke Wăn may not have held out, or Mencius may have found that it was easier to theorise about government, than actually to carry it on. Whatever may have been the cause, we find him in B.C. 319 at the court of king Hai of Liang.

Before he left Tăng, Mencius had his rencounter with the disciples of the 'shrike-tongued barbarian of the South,' one Hsu Hsing, who came to Tăng on hearing of the reforms which were being made at Mencius's advice by the duke Wǎn This was one of the dreamy speculators of the time, to whom I have already alluded. He pretended to follow the lessons of Shan-nang, one of the reputed founders of the kingdom and the father of husbandry, and came to T'ǎng with

1 Bk. III. Pt. I. iii. Bk. II. Pt. I. i. 13.

2 Bk. I. Pt. II. xiii. xiv. xv.

Confucian Analects, XIII. x.