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Once upon a time, when dragons still populated the earth, there lived a wise man of China, and his name was Mang. Kind he was and gentle, and as he used to walk along the streets, mothers would say to their children:

"There goes Mang the philosopher. People say he is a holy man."

But Mang was not happy. Around him he saw nothing but poverty and despair. In those terrible days, before the present civilization, wars were common. And the king used to impose sales taxes, salt taxes, water taxes, bread taxes, and window taxes on the people. Men were dragged from their homes and forced to fight one another. It was a sad and melancholy period.

So Mang decided to travel through the many lands of China, and see how he could help the poor. Everywhere he went, he found ugliness, poverty, and war. "Oh, if Confucius were only alive, instead of being dead these hundred years," cried Mang, "how happy this world would be!" So he began preaching the wisdom of the Great Sage, and soon Mang's fame spread, and lie attracted hundreds of disciples. Distant kings heard of him, and invited him to their courts.

"Why was Confucius great, Master?" asked his young disciples.

"Because Confucius was kind and generous. Because Ills heart contracted with pity when he saw the miseries of the poor, so that he always used to say, 'Enrich them, educate them.' He believed that man could reform the evil within him, and, by adopting the Golden Rule, create an example which all men might follow. Only then could we again have the Golden Age of China."

So Mang went preaching humanity to the people, but they would not heed. People said to him:

"We would like to do good to our neighbors, but how can we when life is so hard, and when there is so little wealth? How can we think of beautiful philosophies when we have nothing to eat?"

So Mang became very sad, and he said to himself, "All men are equal in their inherent goodness, but their good nature is beclouded by circumstances. Evidently, it is the circumstances we have to change, and not man's nature." And from then on, he was a changed man. He no longer preached to the people, but went looking for the rulers, to ask them to change their tyrannical governments which crushed the people by multitudes of taxes.

Once he visited King Hui. "Venerable sir," the king greeted him, "since you have not counted a thousand miles too far to come here, may I suppose that you have also something with which you may profit my kingdom?" And Mang replied: "Why must Your Majesty necessarily use the word 'profit'? What I also have are only these two topics: Benevolence and Righteousness, and nothing else."

But the king would not listen.

Disillusioned over the king's failure to hear his plea for decency to the people, Mang went on traveling around the many countries of China, growing sadder and more bitter. Every king wanted only money and wars. Mang assailed them.

"But is not royal government an institution of God?" asked one of his pupils.

"Yes," said Mang after some thought, "but the kings were appointed by heaven so that they would rule the people. It is the people themselves who must find out whether certain kings do 'rule,' for, my young friend, heaven hears as people hear. Government is from God; the governors are from people." And seeing how shocked his young disciple was, he added with a kindly smile, "The people are the most important element in a nation; the altars to the spirits of the land and grain are the second; the sovereign is the lightest."

And then he horrified his listener by concluding, "The monarch whose rule is injurious to the people, and who is deaf to remonstrance and counsel should be dethroned. In such a case, killing is no murder. I will tell you what is murder: War is! All generals are criminals. It is wrong to conquer a territory against the wishes of the people of that territory."

And now Mang's heart was heavy, for he failed to accomplish anything. He criticized the existing order without knowing what to suggest in its stead. He attacked taxation; he thought that tariffs were stupid since they hampered free trade; and he decried the forced labor of the very young and the very old. A great advocate of public education, he bewailed the prevailing illiteracy and ignorance. "Let careful attention be paid to education in schools, with stress on the inculcation of filial piety and fraternal duty, and there will be no gray-haired men on the roads carrying burdens on their backs or heads." But the kings laughed at him, and drove him out of their realms.

Meeting a famous king one day, he proposed to him that hampering taxes be eliminated. The king shrugged his shoulders, and promised that he would make taxes lighter each year. To which Mang replied, "There was once a man who stole his neighbor's fowl daily. Some one told him, "This is not the way of a gentleman.' To which he replied, 'With your leave, I shall take fewer. I shall steal one fowl a month, and wait until next year to stop stealing.' If you know it is right, stop it at once. Why wait until next year?"

One day, Mang was watching the peasants cultivate the soil for their feudal masters. Each baron divided each of his lots into nine parts, marking off the central portion, and making it the biggest of the nine divisions. Eight families lived on each lot, dividing the remaining eight portions among themselves.

The baron collected the produce of the middle portion as his tribute.

While Mang watched, he was suddenly seized with a wild idea. rushing into his dwelling, and summoning his disciples, with burning eyes he outlined his plan.

"I have finally found the solution to the world's social ills," he uttered breathlessly. "The earth belongs to all men who to-day work to support their idle rulers and masters. The peasants are not only robbed of the central and best part of their land, but in addition are crushed by the harsh and unceasing taxes ruthlessly levied upon them. They toll continually to feed their oppressors. Now here is what I propose: All taxes should be abolished, since they hamper production. The king should instead appropriate the central portion of each lot, which to-day goes as tribute to the landlords, in lieu of all levies on people. After various expenses of the government are paid, the balance of such collected rent should be equally divided among the people. Thus there would come an end to human suffering and oppression."

Ablaze with his discovery, Mang sent his disciples to all the courts of China. But discouragement followed discouragement. His disciples were ridiculed, and many betrayed their master by becoming tax-collectors to the various rulers.

So time marched on, and Mang grew old and weary.

One day, as he was nodding in the sun, dreaming of his youth and fruitless endeavor, he was awakened by the cries of a favorite disciple, returning from his embassy.

"Master!" he cried, embracing the old man, "I finally have good news for you! The king of Lu, birthplace of the sacred Confucius, is anxious to see you. He wishes to learn from your lips all about your wonderful remedy."

And so, towards the end of his life, Mang the philosopher journeyed to the court of the king of Lu. His fevered spirit visualized a new world. At last, his proposal would be given a trial!

On the appointed day, the king ordered his carriage to be yoked, in order to visit Mang who was staying in one of the palaces of the royal gardens. Just as he was about to step into it, a scheming and unworthy favorite, who was receiving a great deal of rent from his peasants, stepped in, and so diverted the king's attention with a number of anecdotes, that the king laughed continually, and changed his mind about visiting Mang that day.

"The king promised to come tomorrow, Master," comforted him his distressed and worried disciple.

Mang turned his aged eyes upon his favorite student, and shook his head sadly.

"No, my son," he remarked. "A man's advancement or the arresting of it may seem to be effected by others, but is really beyond their power. My not finding the king of Lu a ruler who would confide in me and put my lessons in practice, is from heaven."

And so, smitten to the heart, and accepting this as the will of heaven, he withdrew from the court. Long had he striven against adverse circumstances, but now he bowed his head in submission. Back home again, surrounded by his favorite disciples, he raised his head from his death-bed, looked at the beautiful world, arid saying, "Carry on," died. And thus went into eternity the glorious soul of Mang the philosopher.


* * *,br> And this, my children, is the story of Mang, known to all of us to-day as Mencius, China's greatest social sage.