Part 09 · 9 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.
Wan Zhang I repeatedly discusses ministerial duty, honest counsel, and the boundaries of political responsibility.
Book-level hubs
孟子 5A.1
Because Shun's pain does not come from wanting to cast his parents off. It comes from striving to serve them and still being unable to receive their affection. He is hurt, yet still turned toward them. That sorrowful turning is what Mencius calls grieving longing.
This passage serves searches around Shun, grieving longing, filiality, and how Mencius interprets pain inside family duty.
孟子 5A.2
Because in Shun's concrete situation, insisting on prior notice would have made the relation of marriage itself impossible. Mencius is not treating parents lightly, but judging in conflict that the total cancellation of one more basic human relation would create a deeper disorder.
This passage serves searches around Shun, marriage, and conflict within human relations. It shows Mencius handling relational conflict without flattening it into a simple rule.
孟子 5A.3
Because a simple logic of retaliation would suggest immediate destruction, but Mencius is asking how to address Xiang's wickedness without at the same time ruining the innocent people attached to the domain. The enfeoffment appears as a difficult arrangement that faces kinship, politics, and consequence together.
This passage serves searches around Xiang, Shun, and justice with consequence. It is a key text for understanding Mencius on complex responsibility rather than simple retaliation.
孟子 5A.4
Because supplying the body is not yet enough. The deeper task of filiality is to restore and preserve the dignity proper to the parent-child relation, not merely to deliver material support.
This passage serves high-intent searches around filial piety, honoring parents, and the meaning of nourishing them 'with the whole kingdom.'
孟子 5A.5
Because the world cannot be handed over by a sentence alone. The person who bears the world must show in practice that he can carry the order, win real allegiance, and meet the responsibilities of rule.
This passage serves searches around abdication, the Mandate of Heaven, and Mencius on legitimacy by performance rather than proclamation.
孟子 5A.6
Because political succession is neither a householder distributing his estate nor a sage appointing a favorite. Unless achievement, public acceptance, and the larger order all converge, personal preference does not create legitimacy.
This passage serves searches around abdication, heredity, Heaven and legitimacy, and Mencius on the public basis of succession.
Why does Mencius describe Shun's crying as grieving longing rather than ordinary resentment?
Source opening: Wan Zhang asked Mencius, saying, 'When Shun went into the fields, he cried out and wept towards the pitying heavens.
Why does Mencius defend Shun's marrying without first informing his parents?
Source opening: Wan Zhang asked Mencius, saying, 'It is said in the Book of Poetry, "In marrying a wife, how ought a man to proceed?
Why does Mencius say that although Xiang was deeply inhumane, Shun still enfeoffed him?
Source opening: Wan Zhang said, 'Xiang made it his daily business to slay Shun.
Why does Mencius say that the highest form of filiality is honoring one's parents?
Source opening: Xian Qiu Meng asked Mencius, saying, 'There is the saying, "A scholar of complete virtue may not be employed as a minister by his sovereign, nor treated as a son by his father.
Why does Mencius say that Heaven gives without speaking, showing its judgment through conduct and affairs?
Source opening: Wan Zhang said, 'Was it the case that Yao gave the throne to Shun?
Why does Mencius say that the realm is not simply handed over by private choice, but depends on whether Heaven gives it to the worthy or to the son?
Source opening: Wan Zhang asked Mencius, saying, 'People say, "When the disposal of the kingdom came to Yu, his virtue was inferior to that of Yao and Shun, and he transmitted it not to the worthi…
Why does Mencius strongly deny that Yi Yin sought an introduction to Tang through cookery?
Source opening: Wan Zhang asked Mencius, saying, 'People say that Yi Yin sought an introduction to Tang by his knowledge of cookery.
Why does Mencius firmly deny that Confucius lodged with questionable hosts in order to obtain office?
Source opening: Wan Zhang asked Mencius, saying, 'Some say that Confucius, when he was in Wei, lived with the ulcer-doctor, and when he was in Qi, with the attendant, Qi Huan;
Why does Mencius think Bai Li Xi could not have sold himself and fed oxen to seek an introduction to Duke Mu?
Source opening: Wan Zhang asked Mencius, 'Some say that Bai Li Xi sold himself to a cattle-keeper of Jin for the skins of five rams, and fed his oxen, in order to find an introduction to the duke…