Jin Xin II · Passage 30 / 38 · 孟子 7B.30
Mencius 7B.30: why keep the rule of not
When suspicion falls on his followers, Mencius defends a teaching principle: do not pursue the learner's past without end.
孟子之滕，館於上宮。有業屨於牖上，館人求之弗得。或問之曰：「若是乎從者之廋也。」曰：「子以是為竊屨來與？」曰：「殆非也。夫子之設科也，往者不追，來者不拒。茍以是心至，斯受之而已矣。」
When Mencius went to Teng, he was lodged in the Upper palace. A sandal in the process of making had been placed there in a window, and when the keeper of the place came to look for it, he could not find it. On this, some one asked Mencius, saying, 'Is it thus that your followers pilfer?' Mencius replied, 'Do you think that they came here to pilfer the sandal?' The man said, 'I apprehend not. But you, Master, having arranged to give lessons, do not go back to inquire into the past, and you do not reject those who come to you. If they come with the mind to learn, you receive them without any more ado.'
Priority note
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Central question
Why does Mencius keep the rule of not pursuing the past and not rejecting those who come, even under suspicion?
Direct answer
Because if education is captured first by suspicion, learning is blocked before it starts. When someone truly comes with the heart to learn, the teacher's first task is reception and guidance rather than retroactive prosecution.
First principle
Teaching begins from a person's present turn toward what is right, not from endless pursuit of the past. Without such an entry point, reform cannot begin.
Why it matters
This passage serves searches around admission, reform, and educational openness in Mencius, and it directly strengthens the site's method page.
Further reading
What this passage is doing
This is passage 30 of 38 in Jin Xin II. The cleanest entry point is "Is it thus that your followers pilfer". In context, it works as part of Mencius's argument about knowing words, knowing destiny, and the completion of cultivation and can be read alongside Humane government / kingly way.
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Jin Xin II treats knowing words, knowing destiny, and the judgments proper to mature cultivation together.
Related principles
Citation note
Do not read it as moral indifference. Mencius is not excusing theft; he is refusing to let education become pure suspicion before a learner's present intention can be tested.