Read Mencius: Do not pay attention to benevolence and righteousness, only pursue interests, in the end, harm others and ultimately harm themselves

Mencius - King Hui of Liang (Chapter 1):

Mencius saw King Hui of Liang, and Wang Yue said, "So, if you come from thousands of miles away, there will also be Eli my country?" ”

Mencius said to him, "Why should the king know profit?" There is also benevolence and righteousness. The king knows how to benefit my country, the doctor knows how to benefit my family, the scholar and the common man know how to benefit my body, and the country is in danger. The kingdom of ten thousand multiplications, whoever kills his king, will be the house of a thousand multiplications; the kingdom of a thousand multiplications, whoever kills his kings, will be the house of a hundred multiplications. Take a thousand, take a thousand, not too much. For the sake of righteousness, there is no profit, and there is no appetite. He who has not been benevolent and has left his relatives behind, nor has he who has no righteousness and then his king. The king also knows benevolence and righteousness, so why should he know profit! ”

Who is King Hui of Liang in the text?

King Hui of Liang, also known as King Hui of Wei, was the son of Marquis Wu of Wei. The State of Wei is the State of Wei as we know it in the Seven Heroes of the Warring States, not the State of Wei of Cao Cao during the Three Kingdoms period.

The reason why King Hui of Wei was also called King Hui of Liang was because in the ninth year of King Hui of Wei, that is, in 361 BC, he moved the capital of the country from the original An Yi to Da Liang. In the familiar story of wei and rescue of Zhao, it is the capital of wei that Sun Zhen wants to besiege. At that time, Pang Juan commanded the elite of the State of Wei to attack the State of Zhao, and the State of Zhao asked the State of Qi for help and promised it to benefit. Therefore, the king of Qi Wei ordered Tian Ji to be a general, and Sun Zhen, who had been saved from the State of Wei, was made a military master and sent troops to save Zhao.

Sun Zhen, who was proficient in the art of war, did not directly rescue the Zhao state, but carefully analyzed the situation at that time, believing that Pang Juan commanded the elite of the Wei state to attack the zhao state, then the wei capital Liang would only have some old, weak, sick and disabled, and the defense must be weak. If at this time he led an army to attack the Wei capital City of Daliang, then Pang Juan, after receiving the information, would definitely return to the division to rescue him.

This is the method of warfare that avoids reality and virtuality, and attacks the enemy and must be saved. The encirclement and reinforcement during our War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was the flexible application of this method of warfare.

Let's go back and say that King Hui of Liang, his son was the Marquis of Wei, and logically speaking, he should inherit the title of Marquis of Liang. In the Zhou Dynasty, we know that the Zhou Tianzi was divided into worlds, and the monarchs of the princely states were divided into five titles according to rank, such as dukes, marquises, uncles, sons, and males, such as the Duke of Qi Huan, the Duke of Jinwen, and so on. Only Zhou Tianzi could be called a king, at this time there was no emperor's statement, and it was not until hundreds of years later, when the King of Qin unified the world and called himself the first emperor, that the emperor's statement appeared.

The monarch of the princely states could only use the fifth rank of duke and uncle, but could not use the title of prince. King Hui of Liang used wangjue, which was contrary to the etiquette system of the Zhou Dynasty. However, by the early warring states period, the etiquette system of the Zhou Dynasty had already been a collapse of etiquette, the princely states were big and small, the strong were bullying the weak, and the Zhou Tianzi had long lost the majesty of the past, and could only barely survive in the cracks between the powerful princely states.

In 334 BC, King Hui of Liang and King Wei of Qi met in Xuzhou, honoring King Qiwei as king, and King Wei also recognized him as king, and was known as "King Xiang of Xuzhou". It can be seen from this that the princes at this time have long since stopped taking Zhou Tianzi as the same thing.

Mencius promoted his doctrine in such a large social context, and in order to increase the attractiveness of his doctrine, he called his doctrine the Royal Tao, that is, the king of the world with benevolence, in order to distinguish it from the hegemony of ruling the world by force.

Mencius's opening dialogue with King Hui of Liang is actually about the necessity of benevolence.

Mencius came to see King Hui of Liang, and King Hui of Liang asked Mencius: Old man, you have come to me thousands of miles away, must there be any way to benefit my country?

Mencius shook his head and said:

No！ No！ No！ Why did the king talk about interests as soon as they met? This seems to be too low for the king's pattern! It is enough for us to talk only about benevolence and righteousness. The king said how can I benefit my country, the king's doctor said how can I benefit my family, and the soldiers and the people said how can we benefit ourselves. If all the people in the king's kingdom are chasing each other's interests, then the country is in danger.

The one who can kill the king of a country must be a doctor with high power and a large family power under the monarch. The status of the doctor in a country is not high, and the wealth is not much. But if everything is profitable and then righteous, then they will not be satisfied for their personal self-interest, until they have taken possession of the whole country.

I have never seen a righteous man abandon his relatives and disrespect his monarch. Therefore, the king only needs to put benevolence and righteousness first in all things, so why talk about interests!

In fact, when Mencius said these words to Liang Huiwang, Liang Huiwang's inner thoughts and thoughts should be much more touching than those of us outsiders. This matter should start with Wei Huanzi, the grandfather of Liang Huiwang's grandfather.

At that time, Wei Huanzi was also the grand master of the princely states of Jin, and together with Zhao Xiangzi, Han Kangzi, and Zhibo, he held the power of the Jin state, of which the Zhibo clan was the most powerful. Later, Zhi Bo advocated that each family take a piece of land to offer (return) to the monarch, wei Huanzi and Han Kangzi were pressured to give up the land, but Zhao Xiangzi did not agree. So Zhi Bo joined forces with Wei Huanzi and Han Kangzi to send troops to attack Zhao Xiangzi. They besieged Zhao Xiangzi in Jinyang City, attacked it for more than two years, and did not break the city.

One day, Zhi Bo looked at Jinshui near Jinyang and suddenly had an idea, he wanted to flood Jinyang.

The Jinshui at the mouth soon flooded Jinyang City. Seeing that Jinyang City was about to be breached, one of Zhao Xiangzi's men took advantage of the night to go out of the city to meet with Wei Huanzi and Han Kangzi, and instigated his three-inch tongue to make a big deal out of his way. In fact, when Zhi Bo flooded Jinyang City, Wei Huanzi and Han Kangzi were secretly alarmed, because there was also a river near their fengyi. If Zhibo attacked them later, they would not be able to escape the fate of being flooded. So, as soon as they heard it, they immediately decided to fight against the water.

In this way, the three families of Han Zhao and Wei joined forces to eliminate Zhi Bo and his family, and divided up Zhi Bo's fiefdom, and at this point, the situation of the three families dividing the Jin dynasty had been substantially achieved. Later, King Weilie of Zhou made them princes, which was a matter of name. In the end, the three families of Han Zhao and Wei abolished the Jin Jinggong and divided up the remaining land of the Jin state, and at this point, the three families of Han Zhao and Wei, the original doctors of the Jin state, completely divided the Jin state.

It can be seen from this that without paying attention to benevolence and righteousness, the doctor steals the country as a prince, and in the end, it is the original monarch who is damaged.

Although Mencius did not explicitly state this in his dialogue with King Hui of Liang, with Mencius's wisdom, he did not need to say more, and the point was reached. If Liang Huiwang had the insight, he would certainly have thought of this.

In a society where the tyrants are weak and the strong are strong, and the hegemons run rampant in the world. This is not the ideal world in Mencius's mind. Although he did not have confucius's grand ambitions and returned to the world of liturgy and ming, he also hoped to establish a world where the royal way prevailed.

Mencius was also painstaking for his ideals. We can also get a glimpse of this conversation between him and King Huiwang of Liang. With his characteristic speculation, he spoke of his silent intimidation. His conversations with King Hui of Liang can actually be summed up in a simple sentence of intimidation.

Mencius pointed at King Hui of Liang and said sharply: If you don't talk about benevolence and righteousness, but only about interests, then your doctors will divide up your Wei kingdom like your ancestors divided the Jin kingdom, and when the time comes, your monarch will never be able to do it!"

The above words are purely my personal fabrications, and only Mencius himself knew whether mencius thought so at that time. Here, I just say it, you just listen.

In fact, Mencius's dialogue with King Hui of Liang is also of practical significance.

Let's take a paragraph.

Zhang San sold the poisonous leeks filled with pesticides and used the money to buy the golden and crispy fragrant fritters fried by Li Si next door, but he did not know that Li Si never ate the fragrant fritters he fried, just like he never ate the poisonous leeks he planted himself.

The reason why Li Si did not eat his own fried fragrant fritters was because only he knew that he used gutter oil. Therefore, for the sake of his own health, Li Si went to the Wang Er Bun Shop across the street to buy a big white and fragrant meat bun to eat.

But he didn't know that Wang Er's buns were all made of lymphatic meat, and Wang Er never ate his own meat buns. On this day, he bought two pounds of leeks from Zhang San, made scrambled eggs with leeks at noon, and bought a few pounds of white and fat steamed buns from Liu, who was next door.

Wang Er also did not know that Mantou Liu never ate the large white steamed bun that he had steamed with sulfur, he only ate Li Sijia's fragrant fritters.

Through the above seemingly absurd passage, we can see that if people do not even talk about the minimum of benevolence and morality, but only pursue profit, then everyone will live in the trap of others, and no one can be an exception.

Benevolence and morality are the minimum bottom line of our society, and once people only pursue interests, then these bottom lines will be broken, and the interests of everyone living in society will be damaged.

At this time, some people may take out a famous quote of Adam Smith to argue:

You don't have to think about how to serve the society and the country all day long, you just have to do things for the maximization of your own interests, because when you and others serve their own interests to the maximum, although your subjective desires are not thought to be done for society, the actual effect is that you have made the greatest contribution to society and to the collective. --Adam ▪ Smith's The Wealth of Nations

This may make some selfish people feel better, because the originators of Western economics have said that as long as people think about their own interests, they are actually contributing to the collective.

But Adam Smith also said:

As long as it does not violate just laws, then everyone has complete freedom to pursue his own interests in his own way. -- Adam ▪ Smith's The Wealth of Nations

In this sentence, the law of justice can actually be seen as mencius's benevolence and righteousness, or righteousness.

Everyone can pursue their own interests, but there is a big premise, that is, there must be moral observance. When people only pursue profits and do not abide by morality, society will enter a state of "taking the other way and giving to others", how you harm the interests of others, others will harm your interests in the same way.

Therefore, human nature is selfish, and there is a way to pursue profits.

Starting from today, I will continue to update some of the feelings of reading Mencius, including some translations and interpretations of the original text, but also have my own little ideas, if you like, please like me!

- Mei Chen has a point of view, and the character is to the conscience.

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