Mencius in 30 Pages
One Day of Sun, Ten of Cold
How many of your plans died after three days of enthusiasm?
Original
孟子曰：「無或乎王之不智也。雖有天下易生之物也，一日暴之，十日寒之，未有能生者也。吾見亦罕矣，吾退而寒之者至矣，吾如有萌焉何哉？今夫弈之為數，小數也；不專心致志，則不得也。弈秋，通國之善弈者也。使弈秋誨二人弈，其一人專心致志，惟弈秋之為聽；一人雖聽之，一心以為有鴻鵠將至，思援弓繳而射之，雖與之俱學，弗若之矣。為是其智弗若與？曰：非然也。」In plain words
Mencius said, “Don't be surprised that the king lacks wisdom. Even the easiest plant in the world to grow will never grow if it gets one day of sun and ten days of cold. I see him only rarely, and as soon as I withdraw, the people who chill him arrive. Even if a sprout appears, what can I do? Take the game of weiqi. It's a minor art, but without full concentration you won't master it. Yi Qiu is the best player in the land. Suppose he teaches two people. One gives it his whole mind and listens only to Yi Qiu. The other listens too, but his whole mind is on a swan he thinks is about to fly over, and how he'll draw his bow and shoot it. Though they study together, he falls behind. Is that because he is less clever? I say it is not.”
Key words
- 暴pùSame as 曝: to warm in the sun.
- 萌méngA new sprout; here, the first stirring of good in the king's heart.
- 專心致志zhuān xīn zhì zhìPutting your whole mind and will into one thing.
Reading it step by step
On the last page Mencius found a small sprout in King Xuan's heart: the feeling he couldn't bear it. Yet the king never became a kind ruler. Why not? Mencius answers with a picture: one day of sun, ten days of cold.
First: even the hardiest plant can't survive one day of sun and ten of cold. Don't be surprised the king isn't wise, says Mencius. Take the easiest plant in the world to grow: warm it for a day, freeze it for ten, and nothing comes up. Goodness is the same. It starts as a sprout, barely showing, and what it needs is steady sunlight, not one moving moment now and then. The king was moved the day he saw the ox. And the day after? Mencius has a sister image: a whole cartload of firewood is ablaze, someone throws one cup of water on it, and when the fire keeps burning, he says water can't beat fire. Most people who say kindness doesn't work have poured one cup, for a few days, and stopped.
Second: look at who is doing the chilling. “I see him so rarely, and the moment I leave, the people who chill him arrive.” The ones surrounding a king are mostly urging him to war or to pleasure. Mencius's mother, the story goes, moved house three times to find the right neighbours for her son. Mencius himself said that if you hire a man from Qi to teach a boy the Qi dialect, while a crowd of Chu speakers chatter around him all day, you can beat the boy daily and he still won't learn it. Whether a sprout grows depends not only on the seed but on the weather around it.
Third: it isn't a lack of brains. It's a lack of focus. Mencius adds a story about weiqi. Yi Qiu, the best player in the land, teaches two students. One gives the lesson his whole mind. The other seems to listen, but he's really thinking about a swan about to fly over and how he'll shoot it. Studying side by side, the second falls behind. Is he less clever? “No,” says Mencius.
student one
student two
Same teacher, same board: the gap is focus, not brains.
Our swans are everywhere now: a ping, a push notification, a short video we open without thinking. And we do “one day of sun” all the time. We sign up for a class and go twice. We buy running shoes and run for a week. The vocabulary streak dies on day ten. Then there are the chillers: one “Why are you even learning that?” is enough to make us quit.
The good news is that the sprout is still there. And don't wait until things calm down. A seven-year illness, says Mencius, needs mugwort that has been dried for three years; if you don't start storing it now, you'll never have any. The fix is concrete. Less cold: turn off a few notifications, step back from people who pour cold water. More sun: a small fixed time each day, even ten minutes, when the sprout gets light.
Today, give the sprout in your heart one more day of sun.
A sprout can survive being small. It can't survive ten days of cold.
Today's question
Which sprout in you is getting one day of sun and ten of cold? Who or what is chilling it? What ten minutes of sunlight can you give it tomorrow?
Quick check
According to Mencius, why did Yi Qiu's two students end up so different?
“Is he less clever? No.” The difference is focus, not intelligence.
I · Why Mencius Argued — Wisdom, kindness and courage in parables and sayings
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