The good man suits his conduct to his station in life.  If he has wealth and high office he acts becomingly, never treating his inferiors with harshness or contempt.  If he be poor and unrecognised, he never murmurs against heaven, or pines over his lot, or cringes before superiors, or does anything immoral for applause or gain.  The virtuous man accepts heaven’s allotments thankfully and uncomplainingly.

In order to attain to the middle path we must carefully perform the duties which lie nearest to us, not waiting to do great things.  In the Book of Poetry we read of the love of wife, of children, and brothers.  Cultivate this love on the home hearth, and thy charity will expand and take in mankind. [Note how charity, though beginning at home, travels far afield.]

Shun displayed his filial piety on a huge scale, and brought great honour to his parents and to himself.  No wonder that such filial piety as his was rewarded with dominion, wealth, and fame.  It is well said in the Book of Poetry, “The good man receives Heaven’s benediction.”

The Emperor Wan was the only man with no cause for grief, his father being the admirable Ki, and his son the equally admirable Wu.  The father laid the foundation of all this excellence, the son transmitting it to his own son.  The Emperor Wu retained the honour and distinction of his forebears Thai, Kai, and Wan.  He had the dignity of the true Son of Heaven, and owned all within the Four Seas.[11] He sacrificed regularly in the ancestral temple, and after death his successors sacrificed to him.  The Duke of Kau continued the glorious traditions handed on by Wu.  Both these great rulers realised the aspirations and wishes of their forefathers, restoring and improving the ancestral temple, renovating the sacred vessels and offering sacrifices suited to each year.  In other ways also they perpetuated the good deeds of their ancestors, observed their religious rites, encouraged the study of music and poetry, honoured the honourable, and loved the lovable.  They showed due respect to their departed ones, and thus discharged their duty to the living and the dead.

THE WORKS OF MENCIUS

INTRODUCTORY

Mencius is the Latinised form of “Mengtse,” which means “the philosopher Meng,” Meng (or Meng-sun) being the name of one of the three great Houses of Lu, whose usurpations gave so much offence to Confucius.  His personal name was Ko, though this does not occur in his own works.  He was born in B.C. 372, and died in B.C. 289 at the age of 83, in the twenty-sixth year of the Emperor Nan, with whom ended the long sovereignty of Kau (Chow) dynasty.  He was thus a contemporary of Plato (whose last twenty-three years synchronised with his first twenty-three), Aristotle, Zeno, Epicurus, and Demosthenes, and he is well worthy of being ranked with these illustrious men.

Mencius was reared by his widowed mother, whose virtue and wisdom are still proverbial in China.  The first forty years of his life are virtually a blank to us, so that we know very little of his early education.  He is said, however, to have studied under Khung Chi, the grandson of Confucius.