Li Lou II · Passage 13 / 33 · 孟子 4B.13

Mencius 4B.13: why funerary duty is the great thing

Mencius is not belittling care for living parents. He shows that death tests whether reverence and responsibility are carried through where evasion ends.

孟子曰：「養生者，不足以當大事，惟送死可以當大事。」

mèng zǐ yuē：「yǎng shēng zhě， bù zú yǐ dāng dà shì， wéi sòng sǐ kě yǐ dāng dà shì。」

Mencius said, 'The nourishment of parents when living is not sufficient to be accounted the great thing. It is only in the performing their obsequies when dead that we have what can be considered the great thing.'

Priority note

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Central question

Why does Mencius say that seeing parents to the end in death is what may count as the great thing?

Direct answer

Because daily support can become routine, while death brings grief, reverence, and full responsibility into the open. Funeral duty reveals whether one will carry the relation through to its most demanding end.

First principle

A great matter is great not only because emotion is intense, but because it forces responsibility to its unavoidable conclusion.

Why it matters

This passage serves searches around mourning, filial duty, and why Mencius treats the rites of death as a decisive test of seriousness.

What this passage is doing

This is passage 13 of 33 in Li Lou II. The cleanest entry point is "The nourishment of parents when living is not…". In context, it works as part of Mencius's argument about seeing people clearly, ritual restraint, and governing relationships and can be read alongside Human nature.

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