One of these nobles, Duke Wên, asked Mencius concerning the proper way to govern a state.
"The affairs of the people," replied the philosopher, "must not be neglected. For the way of the people is thus: If they have a fixed livelihood, their hearts will also be fixed; but if they have not a fixed livelihood, neither will their hearts be fixed. And if they have not fixed hearts, there is nothing in the way of crime which they will not commit. Then, when they have involved themselves in guilt, to follow up and punish them,--this is but to ensnare them."
In another passage Mencius says: "The tyrants of the last two dynasties, Chieh and Chou, lost the Empire because they lost the people, by which I mean that they lost the hearts of the people. There is a way to get the Empire;--get the people, and you have the Empire. There is a way to get the people;--get their hearts, and you have them. There is a way to get their hearts;--do for them what they wish, and avoid doing what they do not wish."
Those are strong words, especially when we consider that they come from one of China's most sacred books, regarded by the Chinese with as much veneration as the Bible by us,--a portion of that Confucian Canon, the principles of which it is the object of every student to master, and should be the object of every Chinese official to carry into practice.
But those words are mild compared with another utterance by Mencius in the same direction.
"The people are the most important element in a nation; the gods come next; the sovereign is the least important of all."
We have here, in Chinese dress, wherein indeed much of Western wisdom will be found, if students will only look for it, very much the same sentiment as in the familiar lines by Oliver Goldsmith:--
"Princes and lords may flourish or may fade,-- A breath can make them, as a breath has made; But a bold peasantry, their country's pride When once destroyed, can never be supplied."
The question now arises, Are all these solemn sayings of Mencius to be regarded as nothing more than mere literary rodomontade, wherewith to beguile an enslaved people? Do the mandarins keep the word of promise to the ear and break it to the hope? Or do the Chinese people enjoy in real life the recognition which should be accorded to them by the terms of the Confucian Canon?