Jin Xin I · Passage 33 / 46 · 孟子 7A.33
Mencius 7A.33: the scholar's work is to exalt the aim
Mencius answers the scholar's task with radical simplicity: to exalt the aim is to dwell in benevolence and walk in righteousness before one chases office.
王子墊問曰：「士何事？」孟子曰：「尚志。」曰：「何謂尚志？」曰：「仁義而已矣。殺一無罪，非仁也；非其有而取之，非義也。居惡在？仁是也。路惡在？義是也。居仁由義，大人之事備矣。」
The king's son, Dian, asked Mencius, saying, 'What is the business of the unemployed scholar?' Mencius replied, 'To exalt his aim.' Tien asked again, 'What do you mean by exalting the aim?' The answer was, 'Setting it simply on benevolence and righteousness. He thinks how to put a single innocent person to death is contrary to benevolence; how to take what one has not a right to is contrary to righteousness; that one's dwelling should be benevolence; and one's path should be righteousness. Where else should he dwell? What other path should he pursue? When benevolence is the dwelling-place of the heart, and righteousness the path of the life, the business of a great man is complete.'
Priority note
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Central question
Why does Mencius say that the scholar's work is to exalt the aim?
Direct answer
Because office, skill, and reputation all come later. The scholar must first decide what can never count as success—killing the innocent, taking what is not one's own—and let benevolence and righteousness set the direction.
First principle
Before a person can govern events well, he must decide what he will never call achievement.
Why it matters
This passage serves searches around the scholar's task, exalt the aim, and benevolence and righteousness, while deepening the site's treatment of vocation and moral direction.
Further reading
What this passage is doing
This is passage 33 of 46 in Jin Xin I. The cleanest entry point is "What is the business of the unemployed scholar". 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, Flood-like qi.
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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 turn 'exalting the aim' into vague ambition. Mencius defines the aim immediately by prohibitions and by the dwelling-place of benevolence and the path of righteousness.