Mencius' Prescriptions for Ancient Chinese Environmental Problems

8/7/2019 Mencius' Prescriptions for Ancient Chinese Environmental Problems

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Mencius' Prescriptions for Ancient Chinese Environmental ProblemsAuthor(s): J. Donald HughesSource: Environmental Review: ER, Vol. 13, No. 3/4, 1989 Conference Papers, Part One

(Autumn - Winter, 1989), pp. 15-27Published by: Forest History Society and American Society for Environmental HistoryStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3984388 .Accessed: 21/01/2011 14:15

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Mencius' Prescriptions for AncientChinese Environmental ProblemsJ.Donald HughesUniversity of Denver

Environmentalhistorians who have investigated the ancientOrient have understandablygiven much attention to thenaturalisticand pantheistic Taoists. They have said less about theanthropocentricConfucianists,and have almost ignoredMencius.Since Mencius commentedsubstantiallyon natureand landmanagement,it is surprising to note thatYi-FuTuan,in hisprovocative short history of the Chinese and their landscape,mentionsMencius only twice and in an incidentalmanner.1Similarly,recentpapers on Asian traditions and environmentalethics in the journals PhilosophyEast and Westand EnvironmentalEthics, and in Callicott and Ames' Nature in Asian TraditionsofThought,give no consideration to him.2Mencius is a Chinese philosopher of the 4th century B.C.who wrote one of the fourclassics of Confucianismthat werememorizedby every Chineseschoolboyformuch of the MiddleKingdom'shistory. He represents the mainstreamof Chinesethought to a greaterextent than the Taoists, and it will bemaintainedhere that he played a majorrole in forming the typicalChinese view of the environment and in influencing its treatment.3His parentsgave him the name Meng K'o,and he is known inChinese literatureby the honorificMeng Tzu. He has been calledMenciusin the West ever since his writings became known there,and it seems wisest to continue thatusage in this essay, since thereare half a dozen competing ways of spelling his Chinese name(Meng-tse, Meng Zi, etc.), and virtually all bibliographicalreferences to him in Englishcall him Mencius.Mencius'descriptionof Ox Mountainis an outstandingdemonstrationof the sage's acutenessin observingenvironmentalchangeand its causes.


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Menciussaid:There was a time when the treeswere luxuriant on the OxMountain. As it is on the outskirtsof a greatmetropolis,the treesareconstantlylopped by axes. Is it any wonderthat they are no longer fine? With the respite they get inthe day and in the night, and the moistening by the rainand dew, there is certainlyno lackof new shoots comingout,but then the cattle and sheep come to graze upon themountain. That is why it is an bald as it is. People, seeingonly its baldness, tend to think that it never had any trees.Butcan this possibly be the nature of the mountain? Canwhat is in man be completely lacking in moral inclinations?A man'sletting go of his true heart is like the case of thetrees and the axes. When the trees are lopped day afterday, is it any wonder that they are no longer fine?...Others...will be led to think that he never had any nativeendowment. Butcan thatbe what a man is genuinely like?Hence, given the right nourishment there is nothing thatwill not grow, and deprived of it there is nothing that willnot wither away....4

Menciushas seen a mountaindenuded of its forestsover theyearsbylogging, and the way in which grazing can makedeforestationpermanentby preventingthe growth of small trees. Thispassagebearscomparisonwith the almost contemporaryobservationsmadeby Plato of the strippingof the mountains nearAthens, whichPlatoalso attributedto logging, and the consequenterosion anddryingof springs.5Inboth cases, the philosophersreportprocesseswhich they had themselvesobserved. Menciusrecordedtwomountainascents(of Mount Taiand the EasternMount)madebyConfucius(K'ungFuTzu),and likely hadclimbedmountainshimself.6 Undoubtedlymany highlands in China were sufferingthe fate of Ox Mountain.Anotheranthropogenicchange in the landscapenoticed byMencius was cultivationof wasteland.7ForMencius,landmanagement was one of the primaryresponsibilitiesof the state.He advised rulers to makeperiodictours of inspectionof theirterritory,and to use the conditionof the land as primeevidence ofthe quality,or lack of it, of the supervision of the noblemen. If theland is well cared for, officersshould be rewarded, but "ontheother hand, on enteringthe domain of a feudal lord, if he finds the


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1989 J.DONALDHUGHES 17

land is neglected,... then there is reprimand."8A similarobservationwas madeby Xenophonconcerningthe kingof thePersiansin the same century.9 In both cases, the principleis thatauthorities must rule on behalf of the inhabitants. "Itis notenough, [Mencius]insisted, for a ruler to wish his people well;hemust take practicaleconomic measures to assure their welfare."'0He stated this in the strongest terms, insisting that "thepeople areof supremeimportance;the altars to the gods of earthand graincome next;lastcomes the ruler.""Rulerswere not exemptfromlaboron behalf of the altarsor the people. A landlord had to plowthe land to grow grainfor the sacrifices.'2And it was the duty ofthe ruler to care for the land so that it would provide anenvironmentto nurturenative humangoodness. Theconditionof theenvironmentin a countrythusoffered most tellingevidenceconcerningthemeritof its government. This idea of Menciusbearssome resemblanceto the Biblical idea of stewardship,wherehuman care of the earthunder God is comparedto that of a bailiffactingon behalfof a landowner or king. ForMencius,however, themost importantprincipleis not a commandmentof God,but thewelfare of the people.In theory,the ruler owned the land and parceledit out tothose who used it. Menciusfavoreda traditionalmethod ofdistribution called the well-field system, after the characterchinga, for a water well, which looks something like a tic-tac-toeboard,or our sign for"number"(#). A squareof landwas divided inthis mannerinto nine smallersquares,each of the eight outer plotsbeing assigned to one farmfamily, and the centerplot being a publicfield cultivated by all eight families with the produce going to thegovernment.13Thuslabor was shared and the taxwould be lighterin a yearof crop failures. Menciusopposed fixed taxesrequiringthesamepaymentby farmerswhethercropsweregood orbad.'4 Itisinterestingto note that the well-field system is based on the "ninedivisions"or chiu choubscheme of cosmography,which subdividedthe world, the continent,and China itself into nine sections,similarly arranged,with Mount K'un-lun,the axis mundi,in thecenter.'5 Symbolically,this arrangementmade each nine-field unita microcosm. This should not be taken to mean thatthe systemitself is mythical, however. Aerial study of landscapes in NorthChina reveals rectilinear patterns indicating that the well-fieldsystem was extensively used.'6 Theoretically,the dimensions of allfamily plots throughoutChinawould have been the same, and thesize mentionedby Mencius was aboutfour andone-halfacres. It is


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interesting to note that this is also the average size of a farmholding in the Atheniancountrysideat the same time. But inpracticein China, peasant allotments varied greatly from oneregion to another.17Can the well-field system be regardedas a primitive formof socialismin anticipationof recent Chinese history?18Someelementsof it would makeit seem so. Land,the meansof productionin this agriculturalsociety, in theorybelonged to the state and wasparceled out equally among the tenants. Strictlyspeaking, therewas no privateproperty,since the land could not be sold. Thearrangementwas somethinglikea commune,sinceMenciusintendedthat the "eightfamilies would form a community with closerelations of friendship and mutualaid."'9 Everyfarmermade acontributionof labor on commonland,and thereforegave a portionof producewhich was set at a reasonablepercentageof annualyield. Thepatternwas ordainedand managed fromabove, perhapsmore like modern socialist practicethan in accord with socialisttheory. Butdecisions on practicesof cultivationin the plots wereleft to those with practicalexperience, that is, the farmers. Otheraspectsof the system seem feudal. Laboron the public field wasobligatory,and farmers,bound to theirassigned plots like serfs,supporteda classof landowningnobles. Menciusrecognizedthatthe arrangementwould not workunless farmersstayed in theirvillages, but knew that peasantswould flee from the territoryof avicious lord to that of a providentone.20The most distinctiveenvironmentalemphasis of Menciusishis recommendationof conservationpractices. Thisis resourceconservationwithin an anthropocentricframework,since Menciussaid that Earthis more importantthan Heaven, and Man moreimportant than Earth.2'But his grasp of the principle of the wiseuse of renewableresourcescanscarcelybe faulted. His advice toKing Hui of Liang is notable:

If you do not interferewith the busy seasons in the fields,then there will be more grain than the people can eat; ifyou do notallow nets with too fine a mesh to be used inlargeponds, then there will be more fish and turtlesthanthey can eat; if hatchets and axes are permitted in theforestson the hills only in the properseasons, then therewill be more timber than they can use.22


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Mencius assumed thatregulationsgoverningeconomicactivitieswould be promulgatedand enforced. The farmersshould be allowedto work in the fields at seedtime and harvest,not marched off towar. Nets with wide mesh used in fishery would allow small fishand turtles to escape and grow to catchablesize. Mencius'adviceconcerningforestconservationwas particularlysound;a formofsustained-yieldforestrywould assure a supply of wood insucceeding years. In the Ox Mountainpassage,he observed theadvance of deforestationand its causes, advised carefulpracticesoftimber harvestingand the plantingof trees, objectedto the buildingof huge mansions and spokeagainstthe waste of cut logs323As Creelcommented, "Ifthe Chinese people had heeded Mencius' advice inthis last connection,theireconomicposition in the modern worldwould be considerablysounder."24Governmentsin thisperioddidengage in forestand fisherymanagement. Landsurveys gaveattentionto forests, lakes,and coastalzones.25 Mencius referredtoforesters, gamekeepers,and fishery managersas ordinary positionson the staff of a ruler.26Methodsof cultivatingtimber trees werewell known and practiced.27Ingiven statesduringcertainperiods,these measuresno doubt resultedin conservation,but the largerpicture of Chinesehistory shows the uneven but inexorableadvanceof deforestation.A majorforce both in deforestation and removal of wildlifewas the expansionof agricultureinto undeveloped land. In the twocenturiesbefore Mencius, the ox-drawn iron plowsharehad comeinto use, supplementinghumanlabor with a majornew sourceofenergy. Other tools, and methodsof manuring,had also beeninvented.28Thus it is not surprisingthat Menciusoften spoke of theincrease of cultivated land at the expense of the wild. Hesometimes referredto the deeds of mythicalkings who hadoriginally cleared the land for human habitation: "Yiset themountainsand valleys alight and burnt them,and the birds andbeasts went into hiding. Yu dredged the Nine Rivers.... Only thenwere the people of the CentralKingdoms able to find food forthemselves."29The legalist, Shang Yang, urged rulers to cultivatewaste lands as a deliberatepolicy to increase population.30Mencius was more moderate,advising, "Whenwaste land is notbroughtunder cultivation and wealth is not accumulated,this, too,is no disaster for the state,"'31at least when comparedto the worsemisfortuneof neglectingtheproperrites. He opposed opening upnew lands for tyrants, saying that those who do so deserve death


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along with those who make war for the same evil rulers. The landbase, he believed, should be increasedonly for benevolent rulers.32A measure that inhibitedagriculturalexpansion but addedto environmental amenities was the establishmentof gardens,parks,and large preserves. These were no wilderness reservations;in Chinese gardens every squareinch is designed, and art exhaustsitself to be indistinguishablefrom nature. Fantastically shapedrocks, removed from theirnaturalsettings,were placed byartificiallakes and streams, among trees and bamboogrovesarrangedto blend with the architecture. Even large parksweretreatedin this way, although the vast royal enclosures must haveincluded areas more like our forest parks and game reserves.When Menciusvisited him, KingHui of Liang wonderedwhether a truly enlightened monarchcould take delight in suchplaces:

The king was standing over a pond. "Aresuch thingsenjoyedeven by a good and wise man?"said he, lookinground at his wild geese and deer.

"Onlyif a man is good and wise,"answered Mencius, "ishe able to enjoy them. Otherwise he would not, even if hehad them.The Bookof Odessays,

He surveyed and began the SacredTerrace.He surveyed it and measured it;The People worked at it;In less than no time they finished it.He surveyed and began without haste;The people camein ever increasingnumbers.The King was in the Sacred Park.The doe lay down;The doe were sleek;The white birds glistened.The King was at the Sacred pond.Oh! how full it was of leaping fish!33It was with the labor of the people that King Wen built histerraceand pond, yet so pleased and delighted were theythat they named his terrace the "SacredTerrace"and his


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pond the "SacredPond,"and rejoicedin his possession ofdeer, fish, and turtles. It was by sharingtheir enjoymentswith the people that men of antiquitywere able to enjoythemselves.

The T'ang shih says,0 Sun,34when wilt thou perish?We care not if we have to die with thee.35When the people were prepared"to die with"him, even ifthe tyranthad a terraceand pond, birdsand beasts, couldhe have enjoyed them all by himself?36

Here it is clear that Mencius approved of the aestheticuse of land.While inappropriatelylarge enclosures would deprive the peopleof their livelihood, the size of a preserve was not the determiningfactoras to whether it should exist. It should be open to the peoplenot only to enjoy,but also to use in minor ways suchas gatheringfirewoodand hunting small game. Ordinaryfolk would resent evena small parkif they were kept out, but would takepleasurein anextensive reserve if their rulershared it.37One is remindedofsimilarproblemsin WesternEuropewith the royalhuntingpreserves,and the later enclosuremovement. Here again,Menciuswas anthropocentric.A parkwas not alone for the ruler'senjoyment,nor only to preserveanimalsand plants,but mostimportantlyfor the benefit and enjoymentof the people.Did animals have value for Mencius? He saw the feeling ofcompassionforan animal as ennobling, althoughless so thanasimilarfeeling for otherhumanbeings. WhenMencius told KingHsuan of Ch'i that he knew that the king could bring peace to hispeople, the king asked how Mencius could tell. Menciussaid it wasbecause King Hsuanhad seen an ox being led to sacrifice,and couldnot stand to see it shrinkingwith fear, so he had sparedit andordered a sheep slain in its place.38As the sage observed,"Eventhe devouringof animals by animalsis repugnantto men."39Sincethe king felt empathy for an animal,Mencius was certainthat hecould feel similarlyfor his people. He did not oppose animalsacrifices,since Confucius himself had takenpartin them.40 But itwas strangethat the king, moved by the sufferingof the ox, ordereda sheep sacrificed instead. Menciusexplained that it was becausethe king had seen the ox, but not the sheep. He advised not that


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the sheep should also be spared,but thata gentleman should stayaway from the kitchen, to spare his own feelings! He himself wasnot a vegetarian,since he once remarkedthat his favorite disheswere fish and bear's paw.41Mencius'advice on the treatmentof animalsmust beconsideredin light of his distinctionbetween human natureandnon-humannature. InMencius,theword hsingcwas used for"nature"in both senses, that is, specifically human natureandnaturein general.42In the Ox Mountainpassage,43he comparedthenatureof the mountain,which is to be forested,with the nature of ahuman being, which is good. Thepoint of the comparisonwasMencius'centraldoctrineof the originalgoodness of everyindividual, but he went beyond a purelyanthropocentricconclusion.Themountain,too, has a naturewhich is good, and when it isviolated it becomes "nolonger fine." It is best if everything in theworld, humanbeing and mountainalike,can develop in accordwithits own nature. Animalnatureis good; indeed, there is nothingatall wrong with it for animals. Menciusasked, "isthe natureof ahound the same as the nature of an ox and the natureof an ox thesame as the natureof a man?""No, every animalhas its ownnature,distinct fromthat of other species,and human beings havetheir own distinctnature,which is the recognitionand honoring ofappropriaterelationshipsto other humanbeings.45Human beings,if they abandon their relationshipsand duties to other humans,lose their own propernatureand becomecounterfeitanimals.46Butit is laudable for human beings to behave like animals if by that ismeant that they follow theirown inherent good nature,as animalsfollow theirs: "Thepeople turn to the good as water flowsdownwards or as animals head for the wilds. Thus the otterdrivesthe fish to the deep; thus the hawk drives birds to the bushes."47Forhumans,the good is natural. One who wants to followthe right path can simply look into one's inmost nature,because theknowledge of right and wrong is there. But thereis more. Menciussaid, "Allthings were complete in the self."48"Fora man to givefull realizationto his heart is for him to understandhis ownnature,and a man who knows his own naturewill know Heaven."49So, at the deepest level, human nature is at one with nature ingeneral. As FungYu-Lanput it, commentingon this passage,"Onecomes to feel that thereis no longera distinction between oneselfand others,and so of a distinction between the individual and theuniverse. That is to say, one becomes identified with the universeas a whole. This leads to a realization that 'all things are


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complete within us.' In this phrase we see the mysticalelement ofMencius' philosophy."50Here Mencius took a step away fromConfucius and toward Taoism.51By identifyingthe inmost selfwith naturein general,he joined the human path of moralexcellence with the Taod,the naturalpath of the universe. "Itis ach'i which unites rightness and the Way."52This ch'ieis hard totranslate; among its possible meanings are "breath,""spirit,""morale,"and "passion-nature."Butthrough it, one can actproperlyin regardto one's human relationshipsand the world as awhole. If one acts in accordwith this ch'i,one does not interferewith what is natural. Mencius' story illustrates this:

There was a man from Sung who pulled at his rice plantsbecause he was worried about their failure to grow. Havingdone so, he went on his way home, not realizingwhat hehad done. "Iam worn out today,"said he to his family. "Ihave been helping the riceplants to grow." His son rushedout to take a look and there the plants were, all shriveledup. There are few in the world who can resist the urge tohelp their rice plants grow. There are some who leave theplants unattended, thinking that nothing they can do willbe of any use. Theyare the people who do not even botherto weed. Thereare others who help the plants grow. Theyare the people who pull at them. Not only do they fail tohelp them but they do the plants positive harm.53In another passage, he comparedacting this way to guiding waterby "imposingnothing on it that was against its naturaltendency."54How different this is from the laterConfucianist,Hsun Tzu, whostrongly advocated the control of nature. As he said, "YouglorifyNature and meditateon her:/ Why not domesticateher andregulate her?"'5But Hsun Tzu believed that human nature is evil.Mencius'attitude in this regard is more like the Taoists. Heresembled them in other ways. He shunned the extravagantlife ofmany nobles which was so wasteful of resources,sincehe believedthat nothing is "betterfor the nourishing of the heart than toreducethe numberof one's desires."56Despising "menofconsequence,"he said,


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Their hall is tens of feet high; the capitals are several feetbroad. WereI to meet with success,I would not indulge insuch things. Theirtables, laden with food, measure ten feetacross,and theirfemaleattendants numberin the hundreds.WereI to meet with success,I would not indulge in suchthings. They have a great time drinking, driving, andhunting, with a retinueof a thousandchariots. Were I tomeet with success,Iwould not indulge in such things. Allthe things they do I would not do.... Why, then, should Icower before them?57

This is reminiscentof the Romanpoet Horace'sstrictureagainstmonstrously largevillas: "Richmen's luxuriousbuildings leave fewacres for the plow."58Mencius advised a middle way, not the ostentation of thesemen of consequencenor the absoluteself-sufficiency,amounting topoverty, espoused by Hsu Hsing and some Taoists.59Buthe admiredthe naturalman who lived in the wilderness, sensing that he wascloserto the truthand more amenable to educationin wisdom thanmany who have been raisedin morecivilized surroundings. Menciussaid,When Shun lived in the depth of the mountains, he livedamongsttreesand stones,and had as friends deer and pigs.Thedifference between him and the uncultivatedman ofthe mountainsthen was slight. But when he hearda singlegood word, witnessed a single good deed, it was like watercausing a breachin the dykes of the Yangtseor the YellowRiver. Nothing could withstand it.60

Shun,a man good by nature,was at home in wild nature,which isalso good. Menciusused him to show thatany humanbeingcanbecomea sage by living accordingto nature,the nature that is in theheart,and the nature in which every creatureparticipates.Perhaps Mencius is not so strictly anthropocentricafter all.Mencius was a student who, while adopting salient aspectsof his teacher'sthought,was able to go beyond him in importantrespects. He knew Confucius'ideas thoroughly,and grasped theprinciple that if people are to live in the context of nature, as theymust, considerationmust be given to the relationshipsinherent insociety and the basic needs of people. He was also a man of wideexperiencewho possessed an intimateknowledge of the Chinese


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environmentand the land use practicesof peasantsand emperors.Perhaps in spite of that, he believed that human beings, in theirinmost selves, aregood and at one with the goodness of theuniverse. Furthermore,he was well acquaintedwith Taoistthought and was not out of sympathy with its preferencefor thesimple life and its reverencefor the inherentways of nature.Mencius'value for environmentalthought, then, is the mannerinwhich he combineseminentlyuseful suggestionswhichstem fromhis practicalexperience,Confucianconcernforhuman values, andthe Taoist sense of human oneness with nature.a d

b ) 0'I'lc4j-

lYi-FuTuan,China(Chicago: Aldine PublishingCo., 1969),64.2EnvironmentalEthics7, no. 4 (Winter1986);PhilosophyEastand West37, no. 2 (April 1987);Naturein Asian Traditionsof Thought: Essaysin EnvironmentalPhiosophy,edited by J. BairdCallicottand RogerT. Ames (Albany: SUNYPress, 1989).3AlbertF. Verwilghen,Mencius:TheManandHis Ideas(New York.St.John'sUniversityPress,1967).4Mencius6. A. 8. QuotationsfromMencius,unless otherwisenoted, are fromthe translationbyD.C.Lau,Mencius(London: Penguin Books,1970). This passageis on 164-165.5PlatoCritias111 B-D.6Menaus7. A.24, 187.7Ibid.4.A. 1,118;4. A. 14, 124.8Ibid.6. B. 7,176.9XenophonOcconomicus4. 8-9.10HerrleeC. Creel,ChineseThoughtfrom Confuciusto Mao Tse-tung(Chicago: UniversityofChicagoPress, 1953),8211Mencius7. B.14,196.

Ibid.3. B. 3, 108.13Mencius3. A. 3, 97-100;Fung Yu-lan,A ShortHistoryofChinesePhilosophy(New York:Macmillan,1950),75;J.J.L.Duyvendak,TheBookofLordShang(Chicago: Universityof ChicagoPress, 1928),41-44L14Mencius2. A. 5,82.


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15JohnS. Major,'The FivePhases,MagicSquares,and SchematicCosmography,"inExplorationsin EarlyChincseCoemography,edited by HenryRosemont,Jr.(Chico,CA: ScholarsPress,1984),133-135.16F.Leeming,"OfficialLandscapesin TraditionalChina,"Journalof theEconomicandSocialHistoryoftheOrient23 (1980): 153-204,cted in JosephNeedham,ScienceandCivilizationinChina,vol. 6 (Cambridge,UK: CambridgeUniversityPress,1984),101-103.17Mencius3. A. 3, 97-98;FrancescaBray,"Agriculture,"in Needham,ScienceandCivdizationinChina,vol. 6, 429.18his questionis raisedby severalauthors,including BenjaminI. Schwartz,TheWorldof7ThoughtinAncientChina(Cambridge,MA: HarvardUniversityPress,1985),280-282,and ArthurWaley,7hreeWaysof Thoughtin AncientChina(London,GeorgeAllen& Unwin, 1939),120. Thisanalysissubstantiallyagreeswith that of Schwartz.19Creel,ChineseThoughtfromConfuciusto MaoTse-tung,82.20Mencius3. A.3, 99(thatmenshouldnotleavetheirvillages),4. A. 9, 121-122(thatpeopleflockto benevolentrulers).22Ibd.2 A.1, 85.22Ibid.1.A.3,51. Seealso 7. A. 22, 186,whichrepeatsanotherpartof thesamepassagewithsmall variations.2Thbid.7. B.34,201;1.B.9,68.24Creel, ChineseThoughtfromConfuciusto Mao Tse-tung,82.28LesterJ. Bilsky,"EcologicalCrisisandResponsein AncientChina,"in HistoricalEcology:Essayson EnvironmentandSocialChange(PortWashington,NY: KennikatPress, 1980),66.26Mencius3. B.1,106;5. A. 2, 140.Ibid.6.A. 13-14,167-168.The treesmentionedin these sectionsare definitelyonesused for theirwood, but the identificationof thespeciesis argued. TheyperhapsincludePaulownia,Rottera,Catalpa,and Sterculia.SeeJamesLegge'stranslationof 7he Worksof Mencius(Oxford:ClarendonPress,1895. Reprint.New York:Dover, 1970),415-417n.28Bilsky,"EcologicalCrisisandResponsein AncientChina,"67-68;Tuan,China,64.29Mencius3. A.4,102.3ODuyvendak,7heBookof LordShang,175ff., 214-215.31Mencius4.A. 1,118.32Ibid.4.A. 14,124.33BookofOdes,Ode 242.34AnimagestandingforthetyrantChieh.35SeeShuching(Shlhsanchingchushu, 1815edition), 8. 2b.3Mencius 1.A.2, 49-50.37Ibid.1.B.2,61-62 3. B.9,113.381bid.1.A.7,54-56.3xd. 1. A.4,52.4Ibid. 5. B.4, 154.411bid.6.A. 10,166.421.A.Richards,Menciuson theMind: Experimentsin MultipleDefinition(London: KeganPaul,Trench,Trubner&Co., Ltd.,1932),4-5.43Mencius6. A. 8,164-165.44Ibid.6.A.3,161.45Ibid.4. B.19,131.461bid.3. A. 4, 102;3. B.9,114;4. B.28,133-134.471bid.4.A.9,122.4Ibid. 7. A. 4, translatedby Wing-tsitChan,"ChineseTheoryandPractice,with SpecialReferenceto Humanism,"in TheChineseMind: EssentialsofChinesePhilosophyand Culture,editedby CharlesA. Moore(Honolulu:East-WestCenterPress andUniversityof HawaiiPress,1967),25.


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49Mendus7. A. 1,182.50Fung,A ShortHistoryofChinesePhilosophy,77. As Creelobserves,"themeaningof thesepassages has been debatedendlessly in Chineseliterature,"Chinese7houghtfromConfuciustoMao Tse-tung,92-93.51Creel, ChineseThoughtfrom Confuciusto MaoTse-tung,93, 204-205.52Mencius2. A. 2, 77. See the discussionof this passagein Fung,A ShortHistoryofChinesePhilosophy,78-79.53Mencius2. A. 2,78. Mencius'use of parablessuchas this one is reminiscentof Biblicalparallels;for example,Jesus' storyof the Sower (Matthew13:3-30).54Ibid.4. B. 26,133.55HsunTzu, XVII,translatedby Hu Shih,TheDeuelopmentoftheLogicalMethodin AncientChina(Shanghai:OrientalBookCo., 1928),152,quotedin Wing-tsitChan,'The Storyof ChinesePhilosophy,"in TheChineseMind: Essentialsof ChinesePhilosophyandCulture,edited byCharlesA. Moore(Honolulu: East-WestCenterPress and Universityof Hawaii Press,1967),37.56Mencus 7. B. 35, 201.57Ibid.7. B. 34,201.58HoraceOdes2. 15. 1-2.59Mencius3. A. 4~100-104.601bid.7. A. 16, 184-185.

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Mencius' Prescriptions for Ancient Chinese Environmental Problems

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