Motse said, “Of ten thousand things none is more valuable than righteousness. Suppose one said to a man, ‘I will give you a cap and shoes, and cut off your hands and feet; will you do it?’ He surely would not. Why? Because cap and shoes are not as valuable as hands and feet. Or suppose one said, ‘I will give you the world, and kill your body; will you do it?’ He surely would not. Why? Because the world is not as valuable as the body. Men will quarrel over a single word and kill one another: this is valuing righteousness above their own bodies. Therefore I say: of ten thousand things none is more valuable than righteousness.”

Motse went from Lu to Ch’i and called on an old friend, who said to Motse, “Now no one in the world practises righteousness; you alone toil and practise it. You had better stop.” Motse said, “Suppose a man here has ten sons: one ploughs and nine sit idle. Then the one who ploughs cannot but hasten the more. Why? Because those who eat are many and those who plough are few. Now no one in the world practises righteousness; then you ought rather to encourage me. Why do you stop me?”

Motse travelled south to Ch’u and called on King Hsien Hui. King Hsien Hui declined on grounds of age, and sent Mu Ho to see Motse. Motse spoke to Mu Ho, and Mu Ho was greatly pleased and said to Motse, “Your words are truly good; but our king is the great king of the world. Will he not say, ‘It is what lowly men do,’ and decline to use it?” Motse said, “It matters only whether it can be put into practice. Take medicine: the root of a herb—the Son of Heaven [GOD’s appointed ruler] eats it to cure his illness. Would he say, ‘It is only the root of one herb,’ and not eat it? Now the farmers pay their taxes to the great men, and the great men make wine [lawful drink] and offerings of millet to sacrifice to the Lord on High [GOD] and to the spirits [angels, for His sake]. Would they say, ‘It is what lowly men made,’ and not accept it? Therefore, though it be a lowly man, if he is compared above with the farmer and below with the medicine, is he not at least equal to the root of one herb? And, sir, have you heard the story of T’ang? Formerly T’ang was about to go and see I Yin, and ordered the son of P’eng to drive. The son of P’eng asked in the middle of the road, ‘Where is my lord going?’ T’ang said, ‘I am going to see I Yin.’ The son of P’eng said, ‘I Yin is a lowly man of the world. If my lord wishes to see him, let him order him summoned and questioned, and he will receive it as a favour.’ T’ang said, ‘This is not what you understand. Suppose there were medicine here which, when taken, made the ears keener and the eyes clearer; I should surely be glad and force myself to take it. Now I Yin to my state is like a good physician and a good medicine, and you do not wish me to see I Yin: you do not wish me to be good.’ So he dismissed the son of P’eng and did not let him drive. If he is indeed so, then it may be done.”

Motse said, “Every word and every deed that is pleasing to Heaven [GOD] and the spirits and of benefit to the people, do; every word and every deed that is displeasing to Heaven and the spirits and harmful to the people, put aside. Every word and every deed that accords with the sage-kings of the Three Dynasties—Yao, Shun, Yü, T’ang, Wen and Wu—do; every word and every deed that accords with the cruel kings of the Three Dynasties—Chieh, Chow, Yu and Li—put aside.”

Motse said, “Words that suffice to change conduct, hold to constantly; words that do not suffice to change conduct, do not hold to constantly. To hold constantly to words that do not change conduct is to rattle the mouth.”

Motse said, “One must put away the six biases. Be silent, and think; speak, and instruct; act, and work; let these three take turns in service, and one will surely become a sage. One must put away joy, put away anger, put away pleasure, put away sorrow, put away love, and use benevolence and righteousness; let the hands, feet, mouth, nose and ears all be engaged in righteousness, and one will surely become a sage.”

Motse said to his disciples, “In practising righteousness, if one cannot do it well, one must not cast aside its Way. It is like the carpenter’s hewing: if he cannot cut true, he must not cast aside his cord.”

Motse said, “If the gentlemen of the world are told to slaughter one pig and cannot, they decline; but if they are made chancellor of a state and cannot, they do it all the same. Is that not perverse?”

Motse said, “Now a blind man says, ‘This is white, that is black,’ and even those with clear eyes could not change it. But mix white and black, and let the blind man pick, and he cannot know. Therefore I say that the blind do not know white and black, not by the names, but by the picking. Now the gentlemen of the world name benevolence, and even Yü and T’ang could not change it; but mix benevolence and non-benevolence, and let the gentlemen of the world choose, and they cannot know. Therefore I say that the gentlemen of the world do not know benevolence, not by the name, but by the choosing.”

Motse said, “Now a scholar’s use of his person is not as careful as a merchant’s use of a single bolt of cloth. When a merchant deals in a bolt of cloth, he does not dare to buy or sell it carelessly; he must choose a good one. But the scholar’s use of his person is not so. What his heart desires, he does; the worse end in punishments, the lighter incur disgrace and censure. So a scholar’s use of his person is less careful than a merchant’s use of a single bolt of cloth.”

Motse said, “The gentlemen of the world wish their righteousness to be accomplished, but when others help them to cultivate their persons they are resentful. This is like wishing their wall to be finished, and resenting it when others help them to build. Is that not perverse?”

Motse said, “The sage-kings of old, wishing to hand down their Way to later ages, wrote it on bamboo and silk and engraved it on metal and stone, to transmit it to their descendants of later ages, wishing their descendants to take it as a law. Now to hear what the former kings have left and not to practise it is to throw away what the former kings handed down.”

Motse travelled south and sent a messenger to Wei, carrying a great many books. Hsien T’ang Tse saw them and asked wonderingly, “My teacher taught Kung Shang Kuo, saying: ‘Merely weigh what is crooked and what is straight.’ Now you, Master, carry a great many books; what use are they?” Motse said, “In former times Tan, the Duke of Chou, read a hundred chapters in the morning, and in the evening saw seventy scholars. So Tan, the Duke of Chou, assisted the Son of Heaven, and his cultivation reaches to this day. I, Ti, have above no ruler’s affairs, and below no hardship of ploughing; how dare I abandon this? I have heard that among things that return to the same end there are some that are truly mistaken; yet the hearing of the people is not equal, and therefore there are many books. Now one whose mind is like Kuo’s often goes straight to the subtle and the fine; of things that return to the same end he already knows the essentials. Therefore I do not teach him by books. Why do you wonder at it?”

Motse said to Kung Liang Huan Tse, “Wei is a small state, situated between Ch’i and Chin, as a poor family is situated between rich families. If a poor family copies the clothing and food of a rich family and spends much, it will surely perish quickly. Now in the house of Chien Tse there are several hundred decorated chariots; horses fed on beans and millet number several hundred; women in embroidered clothes number several hundred. If I took the cost of the decorated chariots and the fodder for the horses, and the money for the embroidered clothes, to maintain scholars, there would surely be more than a thousand. If trouble or hardship arose, let a hundred stand in front and several hundred behind: compared with several hundred women in front and behind, which is safer? I think it is not as safe as maintaining scholars.”

Motse placed a man in office in Wei. The man went, and returned. Motse said, “Why did you return?” He answered, “He did not speak to me truly. He said, ‘I will give you a thousand pen,’ but he gave me five hundred; therefore I left.” Motse said, “If he had given you more than a thousand pen, would you have left?” He answered, “I would not have left.” Motse said, “Then it was not because he was untrue, but because it was too little.”

Motse said, “The gentlemen of the common world regard a righteous scholar as less than a man carrying grain. Suppose a man carrying grain rests by the roadside, wishing to rise and unable. A gentleman who sees him, whether old or young, noble or humble, will surely help him to rise. Why? Because it is righteousness. Now when a man practises righteousness, upholding the Way of the former kings and speaking of it to them, though they do not delight in it and practise it, they go on to condemn and slander it. So the gentlemen of the common world regard a righteous scholar as less than a man carrying grain.”

Motse said, “When merchants go to the four quarters to trade, for a gain of twofold or fivefold, though there are the hardships of barriers and bridges and the dangers of robbers, they surely go. Now the scholars sit and speak of righteousness; there is no hardship of barriers and bridges, and no danger of robbers; the gain in this would be twofold and fivefold beyond counting; yet they do not do it. The scholars’ reckoning of gain is not as discerning as the merchants’.”

Motse went north to Ch’i and met a day-diviner. The day-diviner said, “The Sovereign today kills the black dragon in the north, and your complexion is black; you may not go north.” Motse did not listen, went on north, and was turned back. The day-diviner said, “I told you, Master, that you might not go north.” Motse said, “The people of the south cannot go north, and the people of the north cannot go south. Their complexions are some black and some white; why do none of them get through? Moreover, the Sovereign on the days chia and i kills the blue dragon in the east, on ping and ting kills the red dragon in the south, on keng and hsin kills the white dragon in the west, and on jen and kuei kills the black dragon in the north. If your words were followed, it would be to forbid all who travel; it would be to besiege men’s hearts and to empty the world. Your words cannot be used.”

Motse said, “My words are enough for use. To abandon words and change one’s thinking is like abandoning the harvest and gleaning single grains. To use their words to condemn my words is like throwing an egg at a stone: if all the eggs in the world were thrown, the stone would still be as it was; it cannot be destroyed.”