The minister of agriculture taught the people to sow and reap, cultivating the five kinds of grain. Thus the people obtained a subsistence. Then follow this up by stimulating them, and conferring benefits on them. Good government does not lay hold of the people so much as good instructions. Good government is feared by the people, while good instructions are loved by them.
Good government gets the people's wealth, while good instructions get their hearts.
It is not our object in this paper to deal elaborately with the political doctrines of Mencius. We are more interested in his special contribution to the psychologic and mystic lore as expounder of Confucian teachings. Sound as are many of his political and economic principles, more valuable are his psychological ideas. According to him there is the inner energizing Nature, whose chief constituent is the Will, and the outer acting nature in which appetites arise and develop. The will is the leader of the passion nature.