our dogs and swine eat the food of men, and you do not know to store
up of the abundance. There are people dying from famine on the roads,
and you do not know to issue your stores for their relief. When men
die, you say, 'It is not owing to me; it is owing to the year.' In
what does this differ from stabbing a man and killing him, and then
saying, 'It was not I; it was the weapon'? Let your Majesty cease to
lay the blame on the year and instantly the people, all under the sky,
will come to you."

King Hwuy of Leang said, "I wish quietly to receive your
instructions." Mencius replied, "Is there any difference between
killing a man with a stick and with a sword?" "There is no
difference," was the answer.

Mencius continued, "Is there any difference between doing it with a
sword and with governmental measures?" "There is not," was the answer
again.

Mencius then said, "In your stalls there are fat beasts; in your
stables there are fat horses. But your people have the look of hunger,
and in the fields there are those who have died of famine. This is
leading on beasts to devour men. Beasts devour one another, and men
hate them for doing so. When he who is called the parent of the people
conducts his government so as to be chargeable with leading on beasts
to devour men, where is that parental relation to the people? Chung-ne
said, 'Was he not without posterity who first made wooden images to
bury with the dead?' So he said, because that man made the semblances
of men and used them for that purpose; what shall be thought of him
who causes his people to die of hunger?"

King Hwuy of Leang said, "There was not in the kingdom a stronger
State than Ts[']in, as you, venerable Sir, know. But since it
descended to me, on the east we were defeated by Ts[']e, and then my
eldest son perished; on the west we lost seven hundred li of territory
to Ts[']in; and on the south we have sustained disgrace at the hands
of Ts[']oo. I have brought shame on my departed predecessors, and wish
on their account to wipe it away once for all. What course is to be
pursued to accomplish this?"

Mencius replied, "With a territory only a hundred li square it has
been possible to obtain the Royal dignity. If your Majesty will indeed
dispense a benevolent government to the people, being sparing in the
use of punishments and fines, and making the taxes and levies of
produce light, so causing that the fields shall be ploughed deep, and
the weeding well a