Part 05 · 5 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.
Teng Wen Gong I ties livelihood, teaching, and institutional design to whether people can truly be settled.
Book-level hubs
孟子 3A.1
Because he wants to destroy the excuse that sages belong to another species. If Shun was a man, then the real issue is not metaphysical distance but whether we will exert ourselves in the same direction.
This passage directly serves searches around Shun, sagehood, and whether ordinary people can become morally great, making it a strong bridge from human goodness to practice.
孟子 3A.2
Because the mourning of parents is not a procedural obligation that can simply be completed from the outside. It is a fundamental human responsibility that must be borne personally. If one seeks shortcuts even here, the deepest root of human relation has already loosened.
This passage serves searches around mourning, filiality, and Mencius on ritual sincerity. It is an important anchor for understanding how he unites rite with real moral presence.
孟子 3A.3
Because when basic life remains continually insecure, the heart becomes unstable with it. If institutions first drive people into disorder and then punish them, the fault lies in the order of government.
This is one of the clearest pages in Mencius on livelihood and governance, directly serving searches around 'constant livelihood and constant heart' and the political basis of moral stability.
孟子 3A.4
Because he wants to show that if every person must produce everything alone, society loses both effective division of labor and the higher public work of teaching, judgment, and government.
This page is important for searches around division of labor, Xu Xing, and the political economy of Mencius, expanding the site's authority beyond moral slogans into social order.
孟子 3A.5
Because he is asking where a doctrine begins. If it demands that people level the thickness of natural kinship before speaking of universal care, then it has already severed the living root from which benevolence might be extended.
This passage serves searches around Mohism, frugal burial, and the starting point of benevolence. It explains why Mencius insists on beginning from kinship rather than abstract flattening.
Why does Mencius keep returning to the line 'What kind of man was Shun, and what kind of man am I?'
Source opening: When the prince, afterwards duke Wen of Teng, had to go to Chu, he went by way of Song, and visited Mencius.
Why does Mencius say that in mourning for one's parents one must do one's utmost oneself?
Source opening: When the duke Ding of Teng died, the prince said to Ran You, 'Formerly, Mencius spoke with me in Song, and in my mind I have never forgotten his words.
Why does Mencius treat stable livelihood as a condition for a stable heart?
Source opening: The duke Wen of Teng asked Mencius about the proper way of governing a kingdom.
Why does Mencius defend the line that those who labor with their minds govern others?
Source opening: There came from Chu to Teng one Xu Xing, who gave out that he acted according to the words of Shen Nong.
Why does Mencius focus on Yi Zhi's thin burial of his parents when criticizing Mohist teaching?
Source opening: The Mohist, Yi Zhi, sought, through Xu Bi, to see Mencius.