Jin Xin I · Passage 23 / 46 · 孟子 7A.23
Mencius 7A.23: lighter taxes make humane life possible
Mencius ties benevolence to material order: cultivate fields, lighten taxes, and manage resources by season so ordinary people are not driven into desperation.
孟子曰：「易其田疇，薄其稅斂，民可使富也。食之以時，用之以禮，財不可勝用也。民非水火不生活，昏暮叩人之門戶，求水火，無弗與者，至足矣。聖人治天下，使有菽粟如水火。菽粟如水火，而民焉有不仁者乎？」
Mencius said, 'Let it be seen to that their fields of grain and hemp are well cultivated, and make the taxes on them light - so the people may be made rich. Let it be seen to that the people use their resources of food seasonably, and expend their wealth only on the prescribed ceremonies - so their wealth will be more than can be consumed. The people cannot live without water and fire, yet if you knock at a man's door in the dusk of the evening, and ask for water and fire, there is no man who will not give them, such is the abundance of these things. A sage governs the kingdom so as to cause pulse and grain to be as abundant as water and fire. When pulse and grain are as abundant as water and fire, how shall the people be other than virtuous?'
Priority note
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Central question
Why does Mencius connect the people's humanity directly to fields, taxes, and daily use?
Direct answer
Because stable moral life cannot grow apart from basic livelihood. When production is protected, taxes are light, and use is ordered, people are less trapped in scarcity and struggle.
First principle
Moral order does not float above economic conditions. If institutions keep manufacturing desperation, humane feeling will struggle to become a durable social norm.
Why it matters
This passage serves searches around light taxes, wealth, benevolence, and the economic base of humane government.
Further reading
What this passage is doing
This is passage 23 of 46 in Jin Xin I. The cleanest entry point is "Let it be seen to that their fields…". In context, it works as part of Mencius's argument about exhausting the heart, sincerity, and preserving the original heart and can be read alongside Humane government / kingly way.
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Jin Xin I centers on exhausting the heart, sincerity, and preserving the capacities already given in the human heart.
Related principles
Citation note
Do not quote only 'the people can be made rich.' The line about grain becoming as common as water and fire shows that Mencius is after the conditions under which people can live humanely.