Translation of Mencius Liang Hui Wang I

Translation: King Hui of Liang said: "I have really worked hard to govern the kingdom of Liang.

When there was a famine in Hanoi, I moved the people to the east of the river, and at the same time transported the grain from the east of the river to Hanoi. The famine in Hedong did the same. I have examined the politics of my neighbors, and no one has done as much as I do.

But why is it that the people of the neighbouring countries are not reduced by this, and my people are not multiplied by them? Mencius said, "The king loves war, so let me use war as an analogy."

As soon as the war drums sounded, and as soon as the tip of the spear and blade touched, some soldiers threw down their armor and fled backwards with their weapons. Some people ran a hundred steps and stopped, and some people ran fifty steps and stopped. Is it okay for the soldiers who ran fifty paces to laugh at the soldiers who ran a hundred paces?

King Hui said, "No. It's just that they didn't run a hundred steps, but this is also an escape.

Mencius said, "If the king understands this, then do not want the people to be more numerous than his neighbors." If military service does not jeopardize the season of agricultural production, food will not be eaten; If the fine nets are not used to catch fish in deep ponds and marshes, the fish and turtles will not be able to eat them all; If you go into the mountains with an axe to cut down trees according to the season, the wood will run out.

If the grain, fish and turtles are not exhausted, and the wood is inexhaustible, then the people have no regrets about life, raising, death and burial. The people have no regrets about birth, raising, death and burial, which is the beginning of the royal road. Distribute five acres of mansions to the people, plant mulberry trees, and then anyone over fifty years old can wear silk.

Chickens, dogs, pigs and other domestic animals, if the people can raise them at the right time, then the elderly over 70 years old can eat meat. Each family has 100 acres of arable land, and if the government does not interfere with their production season, then a family of several people can not go hungry. If we conscientiously run schools well and repeatedly teach the common people the great principles of filial piety to our parents and respect for our brothers, then the gray-haired elderly will not be able to carry or carry heavy loads on the road by themselves.

It has never been the case that people over the age of seventy have silk to wear and meat to eat, and ordinary people cannot go hungry or freeze. As for the current Liang State, the pigs and dogs of the rich and noble families have eaten the food of the people, but they do not restrain and stop it; There were people dying of hunger on the roads, but they didn't open the granaries to help them. When the common people died, they even said:

It's not my sin, it's due to a bad age. What is the difference between saying that you have killed someone with a knife and saying, 'I did not kill you, but you killed with a weapon'? If the king does not blame Niancheng, then the common people of the world will defect to the Liang Kingdom. ”