CHAPTER I
1. The philosopher Kaou said, "Man＇s nature is like the ke willow, and righteousness is like a cup or a bowl. The fashioning benevolence and righteousness out of man＇s nature is like the making cups and bowls from the ke willow."
2. Mencius replied, "Can you, leaving untouched the nature of the willow, make with it cups and bowls?You must do violence and injury to the willow, before you can make cups and bowls with it.
NOTE: Kaou, from whom this book is named, is the same who is referred to in II, Pt. I, ii. His name was Puh-hae (不害), a speculatist of Mencius＇s day, who is said to have given himself equally to the study of the orthodox doctrines and those of the heresiarch Mih (III,Pt. I, v; Pt. II, ix). See the 四书摭余说, on Mencius,Vol. I, art. xxix. He appears from this book to have been much perplexed respecting the real character of human nature in its relations to good and evil. This is the principal subject discussed in this Book. For his views of human nature as here developed, Mencius is mainly indebted for his place among the sages of his country. "In the first Part," says the 四书味根録,"he treats first of the nature; then of the heart; and then of instruction, the whole being analogous to the lessons in the ＇Doctrine of the Mean.＇ The second Part continues to treat of the same subject, and a resemblance will generally be found between the views of the parties there combated, and those of the scholar Kaou."
CHAPTER 1. THAT BENEVOLENCE AND RIGHTEOUSNESS ARE NO UNNATURAL PRODUCT OF HUMAN NATURE.
There underlies the words of Kaou here, says Choo He, the view of the philosopher Seun (荀) that human nature is evil (性恶). This is putting the case too strongly. It is an induction from his words,which Kaou would probably have disallowed. Seun(see the prolegomena, and Morrison, under char. 子),accounted by many the most distinguished scholar of the Confucian school, appears to have maintained positively that all good was foreign to the nature of man; —人之性恶, 其善者伪也, "Man＇s nature is bad; his good is artificial."
1. The 杞 and the 柳 are taken by some as two trees, but it is better to take them together, the first char. Giving the species of the other. It is described as "growing by the waterside, like a common willow, the leaf coarse and white, with the veins small and reddish."
2. 顺,—"according with," "following," i.e., "leaving untouched," "doing no violence to." 戕贼人,—人=人性, "man＇s nature," "humanity." Kaou had said that man＇s nature could be made into benevo. and right., and Mencius exposes the error by here substituting 戕贼 for 为,
If you must do violence and injury to the willow in order to make cups and bowls with it, on yourprinciples you must in the same way do violence and injury to humanity in order to fashion from it benevolence and righteousness! Your words, alas!would certainly lead all men on to reckon benevolence and righteousness to be calamities."