Part 07 · 28 passages
This part page carries the argument map and stable citation routes; full source text, pinyin, and close bilingual reading live on the passage pages.
Li Lou I often approaches disorder through self-examination and the standards for keeping the way.
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孟子 4A.1
Because good intentions without institutions never reach the people, while institutions without people and principles capable of carrying them do not execute themselves. Government must solve both direction and implementation.
This passage speaks directly to modern searches about virtue and law, institutions and character, and how political order actually becomes real.
孟子 4A.2
Because he wants to show that good rule is not a ruler's personal style. It has standards. As circles and squares require tools, governance requires an objective measure that power itself does not invent.
This passage fits searches around standards, compass and square, Yao and Shun, and political measure. It is a key text for how Mencius turns virtue into public criteria.
孟子 4A.3
Because he is arguing that benevolence is not merely attractive private virtue. It is a condition of durable preservation. From the Son of Heaven to the common person, once benevolence is abandoned, even the thing one most wants to preserve finally cannot be kept.
This passage serves searches around dynastic survival, benevolence, and Mencius on why political realism without benevolence ends in self-destruction.
孟子 4A.4
Because the first variables one can actually repair are internal. By testing one's own benevolence, intelligence, and respect first, one can distinguish self-failure from external disorder.
This passage turns Mencius into a guide for everyday relationship governance and fits search intent around reflection, accountability, and interpersonal repair.
孟子 4A.5
Because for him politics is not held up first by slogans or outer structure, but by whether persons are inwardly ordered. When the self at the root is unstable, the family, the state, and the wider kingdom loosen above it.
This passage strongly serves search intent around self-cultivation, family, statecraft, and the chain from person to kingdom in Mencius.
孟子 4A.6
Because political order never moves in isolation. The most influential houses and groups amplify what they admire and reject into the wider public atmosphere. If they are turned by virtue, the effect spreads outward; if mishandled, resistance also multiplies.
This passage fits searches around governance, elites, social influence, and Mencius on how political force actually spreads.
Why does Mencius say that virtue alone is not enough for government and laws cannot move by themselves?
Source opening: Mencius said, 'The power of vision of Li Lou, and skill of hand of Gong Shu, without the compass and square, could not form squares and circles.
Why does Mencius use compass and square to talk about politics?
Source opening: Mencius said, 'The compass and square produce perfect circles and squares.
Why does Mencius say that the three dynasties gained the realm by benevolence and lost it by the lack of benevolence?
Source opening: Mencius said, 'It was by benevolence that the three dynasties gained the throne, and by not being benevolent that they lost it.
Why does Mencius insist on self-examination when relationships break down?
Source opening: Mencius said, 'If a man love others, and no responsive attachment is shown to him, let him turn inwards and examine his own benevolence.
Why does Mencius trace the kingdom, the state, and the family all the way back to the self?
Source opening: Mencius said, 'People have this common saying, "The kingdom, the State, the family.
Why does Mencius say that governing is not difficult if one does not offend the great families?
Source opening: Mencius said, 'The administration of government is not difficult - it lies in not offending the great families.
Why does Mencius tell a small state to learn from king Wen rather than simply resist the strong?
Source opening: Mencius said, 'When right government prevails in the kingdom, princes of little virtue are submissive to those of great, and those of little worth to those of great.
Why does Mencius ask how one can reason with those who are not benevolent?
Source opening: Mencius said, 'How is it possible to speak with those princes who are not benevolent?
Why does Mencius trace getting the kingdom all the way back to getting the people's hearts?
Source opening: Mencius said, 'Jie and Zhou's losing the throne, arose from their losing the people, and to lose the people means to lose their hearts.
Why does Mencius say that one who does violence to himself cannot be reasoned with, and one who abandons himself cannot be worked with?
Source opening: Mencius said, 'With those who do violence to themselves, it is impossible to speak.
Why does Mencius say that the way lies near while people seek it far away?
Source opening: Mencius said, 'The path of duty lies in what is near, and men seek for it in what is remote.
Why does Mencius trace confidence from above, trust among friends, and delight of parents back to sincerity of the self?
Source opening: Mencius said, 'When those occupying inferior situations do not obtain the confidence of the sovereign, they cannot succeed in governing the people.
Why did Bo Yi and Tai Gong, hearing that King Wen cared well for the aged, decide to return to Zhou?
Source opening: Mencius said, 'Bo Yi, that he might avoid Zhou, was dwelling on the coast of the northern sea.
Why does Mencius say that even Confucius would reject those who enrich a ruler that does not practice humane government?
Source opening: Mencius said, 'Qiu acted as chief officer to the head of the Ji family, whose evil ways he was unable to change, while he exacted from the people double the grain formerly paid.
Why does Mencius say that the eyes cannot hide a person's evil?
Source opening: Mencius said, 'Of all the parts of a man's body there is none more excellent than the pupil of the eye.
Why does Mencius say that respect and frugality cannot be reduced to tone of voice and smiling expression?
Source opening: Mencius said, 'The respectful do not despise others.
Why does Mencius use the drowning sister-in-law case to discuss ritual and flexibility?
Source opening: Chun Yu Kun said, 'Is it the rule that males and females shall not allow their hands to touch in giving or receiving anything?
Why does Mencius say that the superior person does not directly teach his own son?
Source opening: Gong Sun Chou said, 'Why is it that the superior man does not himself teach his son?
Why does Mencius say that serving parents is greatest and yet keeping oneself is greatest?
Source opening: Mencius said, 'Of services, which is the greatest?
Why does Mencius say that only a great person can rectify what is wrong in the ruler's mind?
Source opening: Mencius said, 'It is not enough to remonstrate with a sovereign on account of the mal-employment of ministers, nor to blame errors of government.
Why does Mencius say that there is unexpected praise and blame that comes from seeking completeness?
Source opening: Mencius said, 'There are cases of praise which could not be expected, and of reproach when the parties have been seeking to be perfect.'
Why does Mencius say that people speak too easily because there is no reproof?
Source opening: Mencius said, 'Men's being ready with their tongues arises simply from their not having been reproved.'
Why does Mencius say that people's trouble is their love of teaching others?
Source opening: Mencius said, 'The evil of men is that they like to be teachers of others.'
Why does Mencius insist that one should settle one's lodging before seeking an elder?
Source opening: The disciple Yue Zheng went in the train of Zi Ao to Qi.
Why does Mencius say that one who learns the ancient Way should not do so for food and drink?
Source opening: Mencius, addressing the disciple Yue Zheng, said to him, 'Your coming here in the train of Zi Ao was only because of the food and the drink.
Why does Mencius say that among the forms of unfilial conduct, having no posterity is the greatest?
Source opening: Mencius said, 'There are three things which are unfilial, and to have no posterity is the greatest of them.
Why does Mencius locate the real substance of benevolence, righteousness, ritual, wisdom, and joy in serving parents and following elder brothers?
Source opening: Mencius said, 'The richest fruit of benevolence is this:
Why does Mencius say that Shun's greatness rests fundamentally in great filiality?
Source opening: Mencius said, 'Suppose the case of the whole kingdom turning in great delight to an individual to submit to him.