Mencius. Book IV: Lî Lâu. Part II. Chapter XX.
Legge's summary: The same subject;-- illustrated in Yü, T'ang, Wan, Wû, and Châu-kung.
1. Mencius said, 'Yü hated the pleasant wine, and loved good words.
2. 'T'ang held fast the Mean, and employed men of talents and virtue without regard to where they came from.
3. 'King Wan looked on the people as he would on a man who was wounded, and he looked towards the right path as if he could not see it.
4. King Wû did not slight the near, and did not forget the distant.
5. 'The duke of Châu desired to unite in himself the virtues of those kings, those founders of the three dynasties, that he might display in his practice the four things which they did. If he saw any thing in them not suited to his time, he looked up and thought about it, from daytime into the night, and when he was fortunate enough to master the difficulty, he sat waiting for the morning.'
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Translated by
James Legge, published in 1861 and revised for publication in 1895. Prepared as etext by Stephen R. McIntyre. Noded by
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