CHAPTER IV
1. Mencius having gone to P＇ing-lû, addressed the governor of it, saying, ＇If one of your spearmen should lose his place in the ranks three times in one day,would you, Sir, put him to death or not?＇ ＇I would not wait for three times to do so,＇ was the reply.
2. Mencius said, ＇Well then, you, Sir, have likewise lost your place in the ranks many times. In bad calamitous years, and years of famine, the old and feeble of your people, who have been found lying in the ditches and water-channels, and the able-bodied,who have been scattered about to the four quarters,have amounted to several thousand.＇ The governor replied, ＇That is a state of things in which it does not belong to me Chü-hsin to act.＇
3. ＇Here,＇ said Mencius, ＇is a man who receives charge of the cattle and sheep of another, and undertakes to feed them for him;
in the 4th tone, whereas it is the verb in the 3rd,= ＇to manage＇, ＇to dispose of＇. 未有处=未有所处.
CHAPTER 4. HOW MENCIUS BROUGHT CONVICTION OF THEIR FAULTS MORE TO THE KING AND AN OFFICER OF CH＇Ȋ.
1. 之 is the verb=往. P＇ing-lû was a city on the southern border of Ch＇î;—in the present department of Yen-châu in Shan-tung. The officer＇s name, as we learn from the last paragraph, was K＇ung Chü-hsin.大夫 here=宰, ＇Governor＇ or ＇Commandant＇. The 戟is variously described. Some say it had three points;others that it had a branch or blade on one side. No doubt, its form varied. 去, the 3rd tone, ＇to away with＇.Commentators concur in the meaning given in the translation.
2. 凶年云云,—compare Bk. I. Pt. II. xii. 2. Julien finds a difficulty in the ＇several thousand＇, as not applicable to the population of P＇ing-lû. But is was Mencius＇s way to talk roundly. To make 千人＇one thousand＇, we must read 几, in 1st tone, and suppose the preposition 乎 suppressed. The meaning of the officer＇s reply is—that to provide for such a state of things, by opening the granaries and other measures,devolved on the supreme authority of the State, and not on him.
3. Compare 非身之所能为. Bk. I. Pt. II. xv.
—of course he must search for pasture-ground and grass for them. If, after searching for those, he cannotfind them, will he return his charge to the owner? or will he stand by and see them die?＇ ＇Herein,＇ said the officer, ＇I am guilty.＇
4. Another day, Mencius had an audience of the king,and said to him, ＇Of the governors of your Majesty＇s cities I am acquainted with five, but the only one of them who knows his faults is K＇ung Chü-hsin.＇ He then repeated the conversation to the king, who said,＇In this matter, I am the guilty one.＇