CHAPTER III

1. Mencius said, ＇It was by benevolence that the three dynasties gained the throne, and by not being benevolent that they lost it.

3. If the remark were Mencius＇s own, we should translate仁by ＇benevolence＇. The term in Confucius rather denotes ＇perfect virtue＇. By the course of virtue is intended the imitation of Yâo and Shun; by its opposite, the neglect of them as models.

4. By sovereigns, who carry their oppression to the highest pitch, Mencius intends, as his examples, Chieh and Châu, the last kings of the Hsiâ and Yin dynasties.By ＇the Dark＇ and ＇The Cruel＇, he intends the twelfth(B.C. 781) and tenth (B.C. 878) kings of the Châu dynasty, who received those posthumous indelible designations. I take 削 in the sense of "weakened" (dictionary 弱), which it elsewhere has in Mencius.

5. See the Shih-ching, III. iii. Ode I. st. 8, an ode of the time of the monarch Lî (厉), intended for his warning. The sovereign of Hsiâ is the tyrant Chieh,and by Yin is intended the tyrant Châu, by whose fate,though he neglected the lesson furnished him by that of Chieh, it is suggested that Lî should be admonished.

CHAPTER3. THE IMPORTANCE TO ALL, AND SPECIALLY TO RULERS, OF EXERCISING BENEVOLENCE.

1. ＇The three dynasties＇ are the Hsiâ, the Shang,and the Châu. It is a bold utterance, seeing the Châu dynasty was still existing in the time of Mencius,though he regarded it as old and ready to vanish away. He has a reference, according to ChûHsî, to the sovereigns Lî and Yû, mentioned in the last chapter.

2. ＇It is by the same means that the decaying and flourishing, the preservation and perishing, of States are determined.

3. ＇If the sovereign be not benevolent, be cannot preserve the throne from passing from him. If the Head of a State be not benevolent, he cannot preserve his rule. If a high noble or great officer be not benevolent,he cannot preserve his ancestral temple. If a scholar or common man be not benevolent, be cannot preserve his four limbs.

4. ＇Now they hate death and ruin, and yet delight in being not benevolent;—this is like hating to be drunk,and yet being strong to drink wine!