Li Lou I · Passage 24 / 28 · 孟子 4A.24
Mencius 4A.24: settle your lodging, then seek the elder
Mencius teaches that seeing an elder is not rushed social performance. First set your own place in order, then seek the person you ought to meet.
樂正子從於子敖之齊。樂正子見孟子，孟子曰：「子亦來見我乎？」曰：「先生何爲出此言也？」曰：「子來幾日矣？」曰：「昔者。」曰：「昔者，則我出此言也，不亦宜乎？」曰：「舍館未定。」曰：「子聞之也；『舍館定，然後求見長者』乎？」曰：「克有罪。」
The disciple Yue Zheng went in the train of Zi Ao to Qi. He came to see Mencius, who said to him, 'Are you also come to see me?' Yue Zheng replied, 'Master, why do you speak such words?' 'How many days have you been here?' asked Mencius. 'I came yesterday.' 'Yesterday! Is it not with reason then that I thus speak?' 'My lodging-house was not arranged.' 'Have you heard that a scholar's lodging-house must be arranged before he visit his elder?' Yue Zheng said, 'I have done wrong.'
Priority note
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Central question
Why does Mencius insist that one should settle one's lodging before seeking an elder?
Direct answer
Because meeting an elder is not a bare gesture. It belongs to a larger order of priority and measure. Without that order, the visit looks more like social bustle than real respect.
First principle
Respect is not merely a feeling. It is the placing of actions in the right sequence and proportion.
Why it matters
This passage serves searches around respect, order, visiting elders, and the disciplined sequence of action in cultivated life.
Further reading
What this passage is doing
This is passage 24 of 28 in Li Lou I. The cleanest entry point is "Are you also come to see me". In context, it works as part of Mencius's argument about self-examination, disorder, and keeping the way and can be read alongside Human nature.
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Li Lou I often approaches disorder through self-examination and the standards for keeping the way.
Related principles
Citation note
Do not reduce it to empty etiquette. Mencius is testing whether a person actually knows what comes first and what comes after.