do in the way of self-abandonment, of
moral deflection, of depravity, and of wild license. When they have
thus been involved in crime, to follow them up and punish them, is to
entrap the people. How can such a thing as entrapping the people be
done under the rule of a benevolent man?"

"Therefore, an intelligent ruler will regulate the livelihood of the
people, so as to make sure that, above, they shall have sufficient
wherewith to serve their parents, and below, sufficient wherewith to
support their wives and children; that in good years they shall always
be abundantly satisfied, and that in bad years they shall not be in
danger of perishing. After this he may urge them, and they will
proceed to what is good, for in this case the people will follow after
that with readiness.

"But now the livelihood of the people is so regulated, that, above,
they have not sufficient wherewith to serve their parents, and, below,
they have not sufficient wherewith to support their wives and
children; even in good years their lives are always embittered, and in
bad years they are in danger of perishing. In such circumstances their
only object is to escape from death, and they are afraid they will not
succeed in doing so--what leisure have they to cultivate propriety and
righteousness?

"If your Majesty wishes to carry out a benevolent government, why not
turn back to what is the essential step to its attainment?

"Let mulberry trees be planted about the homesteads with their five
acres, and persons of fifty years will be able to wear silk. In
keeping fowls, pigs, dogs, and swine, let not their times of breeding
be neglected, and persons of seventy years will be able to eat flesh.
Let there not be taken away the time that is proper for the
cultivation of the field-allotment of a hundred acres, and the family
of eight mouths will not suffer from hunger. Let careful attention be
paid to the teaching in the various schools, with repeated inculcation
of the filial and fraternal duties, and gray-haired men will not be
seen upon the roads, carrying burdens on their backs or on their
heads. It has never been that the ruler of a State, where these
results were seen, the old wearing silk and eating flesh, and the
black-haired people suffering neither from hunger nor cold, did not
attain to the Royal dignity."

[Footnote 35: The title of this book in Chinese is--"King Hwuy of
Leang; in chapters and sentences." Like the Books of the Confucian