Reading and Questioning the Documents

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孟（mèng）子（zǐ）曰（yuē）：（）“（）尽（jìn）信（xìn）《（）书（shū）》（），（）则（zé）不（bù）如（rú）无（wú）《（）书（shū）》（）。（）吾（wú）于（yú）《（）武（wǔ）成（chéng）》（），（）取（qǔ）二（èr）三（sān）策（cè）而（ér）已（yǐ）矣（yǐ）。（）仁（rén）人（rén）无（wú）敌（dí）于（yú）天（tiān）下（xià）。（）以（yǐ）至（zhì）仁（rén）伐（fá）至（zhì）不（bù）仁（rén），（）而（ér）何（hé）其（qí）血（xuè）之（zhī）流（liú）杵（chǔ）也（yě）？（）”（）

Mencius warned that believing every word in the Book of Documents is worse than having no access to it. Of the “Successful Campaign of King Wu,” he accepted only two or three passages. A person of perfect humanity has no rival under Heaven. If the most humane ruler attacked the most inhumane one, how could the blood have flowed so deep that it floated the pestles used for pounding grain? Mencius was questioning the account’s portrayal of the slaughter.

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Reading and Questioning the Documents

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