Legend says that the name of Mencius' mother was Chang-shih and that she changed
her residence three times on account of her concern for Mencius.
At
first they lived near a cemetery, and the young Mencius amused himself with
acting the various scenes which he witnessed at the tombs. “This”, said
his mother, “ is no place for my son ;”—and she moved to a house in the
marketplace. But the change was no improvement. The boy took to playing the
part of a salesman, boasting about his wares, and exchanging light chaff and
banter with customers.
His
mother sought a new house, and found one at last close by a public school.
There her child's attention was caught by the various exercises in correct
manners by which the scholars were taught, and he endeavored to imitate them.
The mother was satisfied. “This,” she said, “is the proper place for my
son.”
Another
story of this period tells of a pig-butcher's shop near their house. One
day Mencius asked his mother what they were killing the pigs for, and was told
that it was to feed him. Her conscience immediately reproved her for the
answer for she had not been able to afford pork. She said to herself, “While
I was carrying this boy in my womb, I would not sit down if the mat was not
placed square, and I ate no meat which was not cut properly—thus I taught
him before he was born. And now when his intelligence is opening, I am
deceiving him: this is to teach him untruthfulness!” With this she went
and bought a piece of pork in order to validate her words.
When
Mencius returned home one day from school, his mother looked up from the web
which she was weaving, and asked him how had got on. He answered her idly
that he was doing well enough. On
this, she took a knife and cut through the thread of her shuttle. The idler
was alarmed, and asked what she meant. She gave him a long lecture, showing
that she had done what he was doing—that her cutting through her thread was
like his neglecting his learning. The admonition, it is said, had its proper
effect; the lecture did not need to be repeated.
There
are two other narratives concerning Chang-shih later in Mencius's life.
His
wife was squatting down one day in her own room, when Mencius went in. He was
so much offended at finding her in that position, that he told his mother, and
expressed his intention to put her away, because of “her want of propriety.”
“It
is you who have no propriety,” said his mother, “and not your wife. Do not
The Rules of Propriety say, “When you are about to ascend a hall, raise your
voice; when you enter a door, keep your eyes low?” The reason for the rules
is that people may not be taken unprepared. But you entered the door of your
private apartment without raising your voice, and so caused your wife to be
caught squatting on the ground. The impropriety is with you and not with her.”
On this Mencius rebuked himself, and did not put away his wife.
One
day, when he was living with his mother in Ch'i, she was struck with the
sorrowfulness of his aspect as he stood leaning against a pillar, and asked
him the cause of it. He replied, “I have heard that the superior man
occupies the place for which he is adapted, accepting no reward to which he
does not feel entitled, and not covetous of honor and emolument. Now my
doctrines are not practiced in Ch'i—I wish to leave it, but I think of your
old age, and am anxious.”
His
mother said, “It does not belong to a woman to determine anything of herself,
but she is subject to the rule of the three obediences. When young, she has to
obey her parents; when married, she has to obey her husband; when a widow, she
has to obey her son. You are a man in your full maturity, and I am old. Act as
your understanding of righteousness tells you, and I will act according to
the rule that applies to me. Why should you be anxious about me?”
Legge concludes “Such are the accounts which I have found of the
mother of Mencius. Possibly some of them are inventions, but they are devoutly
believed by the people of China—and it must be to their profit. We may
well believe that she was a woman of very superior character, and that her
son's subsequent distinction was in a great decree owing to her influence
and training”.
Adapted from The Chinese Classics, Volume II, The Works of Mencius, translated by James Legge. Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1895