Chinese and Arabian Literature - E. Wilson - The Search For Mecca

THE SAYINGS OF MENCIUS 107
" Your Majesty collects your equipments of war, endangers
your soldiers and officers and excites the resentment of the
various princes—do these things cause you pleasure in your
mind? "
The king said, " No. How should I derive pleasure from
these things ?
desire."
My object in them is to seek for what I greatly
Mencius said, " May I hear from you what it is that your
Majesty greatly desires?" The king laughed, and did not
speak. Mencius resumed, " Are you led to desire it because
you have not enough of rich and sweet food for your mouth ?
or because you have not enough of light and warm clothing for
your body? or because you have not enough of beautifully
colored objects to satisfy your eyes ? or because there are not
voices and sounds enough to fill your ears? or because you
have not enough of attendants and favorites to stand before you
and receive your orders ? Your Majesty's various officers are
sufficient to supply you with all these things. How can your
Majesty have such a desire on account of them ? " '' No," said
the king, " my desire is not on account of them." Mencius
observed, " Then what your Majesty greatly desires can be
known. You desire to enlarge your territories, to have Ts'in
and Ts'oo coming to your court, to rule the Middle States, and
to attract to you the barbarous tribes that surround them. But
to do what you do in order to seek for what you desire is like
climbing a tree to seek for fish."
" Is it so bad as that ? " said the king. " I apprehend it is
worse," was the reply. " If you climb a tree to seek for fish,
although you do not get the fish, you have no subsequent calamity.
But if you do what you do in order to seek for what you
desire, doing it even with all your heart, you will assuredly
afterwards meet with calamities." The king said, " May I hear
what they will be? " Mencius replied, " If the people of Tsow
were fighting with the people of Ts'oo, which of them does your
Majesty think would conquer ? " " The people of Ts'oo would
conquer," was the answer, and Mencius pursued, " So then, a
small State cannot contend with a great, few cannot contend
with many, nor can the weak contend with the strong. The
territory within the seas would embrace nine divisions, each of
a thousand li square. All Ts'e together is one of them. If
with one part you try to subdue the other eight, what is the dif-