The Wisdom of Confucius: with Critical and Biographical SketchesConfucius
ReligionEastern
The Wisdom of Confucius: with Critical and Biographical Sketches
Confucius
Ethics -- China; Philosophy, Chinese
'When he planned the commencement of the Marvellous tower,
He planned it, and defined it,
And the people in crowds undertook the work,
And in no time completed it.
When he planned the commencement, he said, "Be not in a hurry."
But the people came as if they were his children.
The king was in the Marvellous park,
Where the does were lying down--
The does so sleek and fat;
With the white birds glistening.
The king was by the Marvellous pond;--
How full was it of fishes leaping about!'
King Wan used the strength of the people to make his tower and pond,
and the people rejoiced to do the work, calling the tower 'the
Marvellous Tower,' and the pond 'the Marvellous Pond,' and being glad
that he had his deer, his fishes and turtles. The ancients caused
their people to have pleasure as well as themselves, and therefore
they could enjoy it.
"In the Declaration of T‘ang it is said, 'O Sun, when wilt thou
expire? We will die together with thee.' The people wished for Këeh's
death, though they should die with him. Although he had his tower, his
pond, birds and animals, how could he have pleasure alone?"
King Hwuy of Lëang said, "Small as my virtue is, in the government of my
kingdom, I do indeed exert my mind to the utmost. If the year be bad
inside the Ho, I remove as many of the people as I can to the east of
it, and convey grain to the country inside. If the year be bad on the
east of the river, I act on the same plan. On examining the governmental
methods of the neighboring kingdoms, I do not find there is any ruler
who exerts his mind as I do. And yet the people of the neighboring kings
do not decrease, nor do my people increase--how is this?"
Mencius replied, "Your Majesty loves war; allow me to take an
illustration from war. The soldiers move forward at the sound of the
drum; and when the edges of their weapons have been crossed, on one
side, they throw away their buff coats, trail their weapons behind
them, and run. Some run a hundred paces and then stop; some run fifty
paces and stop. What would you think if these, because they had run
but fifty paces, should laugh at those who ran a hundred paces?" The
king said, "They cannot do so. They only did not run a hundred paces;
but they also ran." Mencius said, "Since your Majesty knows this you
have no ground to expect that your people will become more numerous
than those of the neighboring kingdoms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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