CHAPTER IX
1. Mencius, having an interview with the king Hsüan of Ch＇î, said to him, ＇If you are going to build a large mansion, you will surely cause the Master of the workmen to look out for large trees, and when he has found such large trees, you will be glad, thinking that they will answer for the intended object.
CHAPTER 8. KILLING A SOVEREING IS NOT NECESSARILY REBELLION NOR MURDER.
1. Of T＇ang＇s banishment of Chieh, see the Shû-ching, IV. ii, iii; and of the smiting of Châu, see the same, V. i.
2. 弑 is the word appropriated to regicide, which Mencius is his reply exchanges for 诛. 臣,—＇a minister＇, i.e. here, a subject.
3. 贼, as verb,=伤害, ＇to hurt and injure＇, as in the Analects, several times. ＇To outrage＇ answers well for it here. In the use of夫, Mencius seems to refer to the expression 独夫纣, Shû-ching, V.i.Sect.III.4.
CHAPTER 9. THE ABSURDITY OF A RULER＇S NOT ACTING ACCORDING TO THE COUNSEL OF THE MEN OF TALENTS AND VIRTUE, WHOM HE CALLS TO AID IN HIS GOVERNMENT, BUT REQUIRING THEM TO FOLLOW HIS WAYS.
In one important point Mencius＇s illustrations fail.A prince is not supposed to understand either housebuilding or stone-cutting; he must delegate those matters to the men who do. But government he ought to understand, and he may not delegate it to any scholars or officers.
1. The 工师 was a special officer having charge of all the artisans, &c.;—see the Lî Chî, IV. Sect. I. iii.13, and Sect. IV. i. 17. 胜, the 1st tone,—see Pt. I. iii.3. 其任 (the 4th tone), —＇its use＇, i.e. the building of the house.
Should the workmen hew them so as to make them too small, then your Majesty will be angry, thinking that they will not answer for the purpose. Now, a man spends his youth in learning the principles of rightgovernment, and, being grown up to vigour, he wishes to put them in practice;—if your Majesty says to him,"For the present put aside what you have learned, and follow me", what shall we say?
2. ＇Here now you have a gem unwrought, in thestone. Although it may be worth 240,000 taels, you will surely employ a lapidary to cut and polish it. But when you come to the government of the State, then you say,—"For the present put aside what you have learned, and follow me." How is it that you herein act so differently from your conduct in calling in the lapidary to cut the gem?＇
The 之 after 学 and 行 are to be understood as referring to 仁 and 义, or as in the translation. 壮denotes the maturity of thirty years, when one was supposed to be fit for office.
2. The 镒 was twenty-four Chinese ounces or taels(of gold). ChûHsi, after Châo Chî, erroneously makes it twenty ounces. The gem in question, worth so much,would be very dear to the king, and yet he would certainly confide to another the polishing of it;—why would he not do so with the State? 国家,—the kingdom, embracing the families and possessions of the nobles. 女=汝. 教, the 1st tone,=使 or 令, ＇to make＇,not ＇to teach＇. From 至于, however, was explained by Châo Ch＇î (and many still follow him) thus:—＇But in the matter of the government of your State, you say,—For the present put aside what you have learned,and follow me. In what does this differ from your teaching—i.e. wishing to teach—the lapidary to cut the gem?＇ This is the interpretation which Julien adopts in his translation. The other upon the whole appears to me the better. The first 则 is a difficulty in Châo Ch＇î＇s view; the second, in the other. But the final哉 turns the balance in its favour, and accordingly I have adopted it.
