Mencius 1B.2

Mencius (孟子), Book 1, Part II: Liang Hui Wang II 梁惠王下

齊宣王問曰：「文王之囿方七十里，有諸？」孟子對曰：「於傳有之。」曰：「若是其大乎？」曰：「民猶以為小也。」曰：「寡人之囿方四十里，民猶以為大，何也？」曰：「文王之囿方七十里，芻蕘者往焉，雉兔者往焉，與民同之。民以為小，不亦宜乎？臣始至於境，問國之大禁，然後敢入。臣聞郊關之內有囿方四十里，殺其麋鹿者如殺人之罪。則是方四十里，為阱於國中。民以為大，不亦宜乎？」

The king Xuan of Qi asked, 'Was it so, that the park of king Wen contained seventy square li?'

Mencius replied, 'It is so in the records.'

'Was it so large as that?' exclaimed the king.

'The people,' said Mencius, 'still looked on it as small.'

The king added, 'My park contains only forty square li, and the people still look on it as large. How is this?'

'The park of king Wen,' was the reply, 'contained seventy square li, but the grass-cutters and fuel-gatherers had the privilege of entrance into it; so also had the catchers of pheasants and hares. He shared it with the people, and was it not with reason that they looked on it as small? When I first arrived at the borders of your kingdom, I inquired about the great prohibitory regulations, before I would venture to enter it; and I heard, that inside the barrier-gates there was a park of forty square lî, and that he who killed a deer in it, was held guilty of the same crime as if he had killed a man. Thus those forty square li are a pitfall in the middle of the kingdom. Is it not with reason that the people look upon them as large?'

James Legge (1861), The Works of Mencius, The Chinese Classics vol. 2 (1861; 2nd ed. 1895); romanization modernized on Wikisource — public domain.

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Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0); Chinese Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.