Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 340

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Biographical Notice of Mencius.

JUNE,

opinion, let him be deaf to their solicitations; but if the people unite in the same request, then let him examine the object of their ill-will, and if guilty, remove him. In short, if all the courtiers think that a minister should suffer death, the prince must not content himself with their opinion merely. If all the high officers entertain the same sentiment, still he must not yield to their convictions; but if the whole people declare that such a man is unfit to live, then the prince, inquiring himself, and being satisfied that the charge is true, must condemn the guilty to death: in such a case, we may say that the people are his judge. In acting thus, a prince becomes the parent of his subjects.' It is impossible to attribute more importance, to that which in our own times and country is called public opinion.

But Mencius goes further in the following passage, in which his zeal for the good of the people calls forth an apology, such as we did not expect to find in a Chinese work. The king of Tse, inquiring of the philosopher, respecting events which took place in periods already remote, spoke to him of the last prince of the Heä dynasty, who was dethroned by Chingtang, and of the last prince of the Shang dynasty, put to death by Woo wang the founder of the third,' are these things true?' said he to Mencius.

History vouches for them,' replied he.

'A subject put his sovereign to death! Can it be?'

'The true rebel,' retorted Mencius, 'is he who insults humanity. The true robber, he who is guilty of injustice. A rebel or a rob- ber is a simple individual; what was Chow but such? and in him the individual was punished, and not the prince.'

Mencius did not often give way to this tone of bitterness, but his replies are commonly full of vivacity and energy, and sometimes his language has inet with disapprobation.

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We are told that Hungwoo, the founder of the Ming dynasty, was one day reading Mencius, and lighted on this passage: The prince looks on his subjects as the ground beneath his feet, or as grains of mustard-seed, of no account: his subjects, in return, look on him as a robber, and an enemy.' These expressions shocked the new em. peror. 'It is not thus,' said he, 'that kings should be spoken of. ·· He who has given utterance to such language is not worthy to share the honors which are rendered to the wise Confucius. Let Mencius be degraded, and let his name be stricken from the temple of the prince of letters! Let no one dare to remonstrate with me on this, or to transinių any memorial on the subject, until they shall have first pierc- ed with arrows him who has prepared them.”