The Wood of Ox Mountain and Nurturing the Heart

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English translation

Mencius said, “The trees of Ox Mountain were once beautiful. But because it lies near a great state’s outskirts, axes have cut it down; how could it remain beautiful? Its growth by day and night, nourished by rain and dew, is not without new shoots, yet cattle and sheep graze there too, leaving it bare. People see the bare mountain and think it never had timber. Is that truly the mountain’s nature? Do people not also possess hearts of benevolence and righteousness? Losing one’s good heart is like axes cutting trees. If it is cut every day, how can it flourish? What the heart restores by night and at dawn still has a little of the likes and dislikes shared with others; but one’s actions through the day fetter and destroy it. Repeated fettering leaves the vital influence of the night too weak to preserve it. If that night influence cannot be preserved, a person is not far removed from beasts. People see such beastlike behavior and think the person never had natural capacities. Is this really human nature? If anything receives nourishment, it grows; if it loses nourishment, it withers. Confucius said, ‘Hold on to it and it remains; let it go and it is lost. It comes and goes without a fixed time, and no one knows where it is.’ Surely he was speaking of the heart.”

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