"If the farming seasons are not disrupted, there will be more grain than can be eaten. If fine-meshed nets are not cast into the ponds, there will be more fish and turtles than can be eaten. If axes enter the mountain forests only in their proper seasons, there will be more timber than can be used."
"When grain, fish, and turtles are more than can be eaten, and timber is more than can be used, the people can nourish the living and bury the dead without regret. To nourish the living and bury the dead without regret is the beginning of the Way of Kings."
The Fire God Mantis King directly recited the passage he cultivated. Wisps of literary qi arose around him with his recitation, then flowed into his body.
"So it was a passage from Mencius."
Understanding dawned in Lin Ke's eyes.
This passage was a dialogue between Mencius and King Hui of Liang, through which Mencius introduced his methods of governing a country.
If the seasons for agricultural production were not disrupted, there would be more grain than could be eaten. If fine-meshed nets were not cast into ponds, there would be more fish, turtles, and other aquatic produce than could be eaten.
If people entered the mountains to cut timber only in the proper seasons, there would be more wood than could be used. With more grain and aquatic produce than could be eaten and more timber than could be used, the common people would have no dissatisfaction over nourishing the living and burying the dead.
When the common people had no dissatisfaction over nourishing the living and burying the dead, that was the beginning of the Way of Kings.
This was Mencius's Way of Kings.
For the Fire God Mantis King to advance, his best