On Government

Mencius said “The people are the most important element in a nation; the spirits of the land and grain are the next; the sovereign is the lightest.

Mencius, having an interview with the king Hsuan of Ch”i, said to him, “When men speak of an ancient kingdom, it is not meant thereby that it has lofty trees in it, but that it has ministers sprung from families which have been noted in it for generations. Your Majesty has no intimate ministers. Those whom you advanced yesterday are gone to day, and you do not know it.”
The king said, “ How shall I know that they have not ability, and so avoid employing them at all?”
The reply was, “The ruler of a State as a matter of necessity advances to office men of talents and virtue. Since this will cause the low to overstep the aristocratic, and the distant to overstep a ruler's near relatives, such advancements should be done with caution.
“When all those near to you say, 'This is a man of talents and worth,' you may not therefore believe it. When your great officers all say, 'This is a man of talents and virtue,' neither may you for that believe it. When all the people say, 'This is a man of talents and virtue,' then look into the case, and when you find that the man is such, employ him.”

Mencius said, “Shun rose from among the ditched fields. Fu Yueh was called to office from the midst of his building hut frames; Chiao-Ko from his fish and salt; Kwan I-wu from the hands of his gaoler; Sun-shuh Ao from his life by the seashore; and Pai-li Hsi from the market place.
“Thus, when heaven is about to confer a great office on any man, it first exercises his mind with suffering, and his sinews and bones with toil. It exposes his body to hunger, and subjects him to extreme poverty. It confounds his undertakings. By all these methods it stimulates his mind, hardens his nature, and removes his incompetence.
“Men for the most part err, and are afterwards able to reform. They are distressed in mind and perplexed in their thoughts, and then they arise to vigorous reformation. When things have been evidenced in men's sight, and set forth in their words, then they understand them.
“If a prince have not about his court families attached to the laws and worthy counselors then, even if abroad there are no hostile states or other external calamities, his kingdom will generally come to ruin.
“From these things we see how life springs from sorrow and calamity, and death from ease and pleasure.”

On coming out from an interview with the king Hsiang of Liang Mencius said, “From a distance, he did not appear like a sovereign; Close up, I saw nothing venerable about him.”
Abruptly he asked me, “How can the kingdom be settled?”
I replied, “It will be settled by being united under one sway.”
He demanded, “Who can so unite it?”
I replied, “He who has no pleasure in killing men can so unite it.”
He said, “Who can give such a person the task?”
I replied, “All the people of the nation will unanimously give it to him.
“Does your Majesty understand the way of the growing grain? During the seventh and eighth months, when drought prevails, the plants become dry. Then the clouds collect densely in the heavens, they send down torrents of rain, and the grain erects itself, as if by a shoot. When it does so, who can keep it back?
“At present, among the shepherds of men throughout the nation, there is not one who does not find pleasure in killing men. If there were one who did not find pleasure in killing men, all the people in the nation would look towards him with outstretched necks. Such being indeed the case, the people would flock to him, as water flows downwards with a rush, which no one can repress.”

Mencius said, “It is not enough to remonstrate with a sovereign on account of the wrong employment of ministers, nor to place blame for errors of government. It is only the great man who can rectify what is wrong in the sovereign's mind. Let the leader be benevolent, and all his acts will be benevolent. Let the leader be righteous, and all his acts will be righteous. Let the leader be correct, and everything will be correct. Once rectify the leader, and the state will be firmly settled.”