“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.  After this he may urge them, and they will proceed to what is good, for in this case the people will follow after that with readiness.

“But now the livelihood of the people is so regulated, that, above, they have not sufficient wherewith to serve their parents, and, below, they have not sufficient wherewith to support their wives and children; even in good years their lives are always embittered, and in bad years they are in danger of perishing.  In such circumstances their only object is to escape from death, and they are afraid they will not succeed in doing so—­what leisure have they to cultivate propriety and righteousness?

“If your Majesty wishes to carry out a benevolent government, why not turn back to what is the essential step to its attainment?

“Let mulberry trees be planted about the homesteads with their five acres, and persons of fifty years will be able to wear silk.  In keeping fowls, pigs, dogs, and swine, let not their times of breeding be neglected, and persons of seventy years will be able to eat flesh.  Let there not be taken away the time that is proper for the cultivation of the field-allotment of a hundred acres, and the family of eight mouths will not suffer from hunger.  Let careful attention be paid to the teaching in the various schools, with repeated inculcation of the filial and fraternal duties, and gray-haired men will not be seen upon the roads, carrying burdens on their backs or on their heads.  It has never been that the ruler of a State, where these results were seen, the old wearing silk and eating flesh, and the black-haired people suffering neither from hunger nor cold, did not attain to the Royal dignity.”

[NOTE:  Books II, III, and IV are omitted]

[Footnote 1:  The title of this book in Chinese is—­“King Hwuy of Leang; in chapters and sentences.”  Like the Books of the Confucian Analects, those of this work are headed by two or three words at or near the commencement of them.  Each Book is divided into two parts.  This arrangement was made by Chaou K’e, and to him are due also the divisions into chapters, and sentences, or paragraphs, containing, it may be, many sentences.]

[Footnote 2:  Seang was the son of King Hwuy.  The first year of his reign is supposed to be B.C. 317.  Seang’s name was Hih.  As a posthumous epithet, Seang has various meanings:  “Land-enlarger and Virtuous”; “Successful in Arms.”  The interview here recorded seems to have taken place immediately after Hih’s accession, and Mencius, it is said, was so disappointed by it that he soon after left the country.]