Abstract

In an earlier essay, I argued that King Xuan 宣 sacrifices a sheep rather than an ox to save money, and that Mengzi 孟子 offers the king an alternative, benign rationale for the substitution in order to overcome the king’s reluctance to improve his own character. In the current essay, I defend my interpretation of the dialogue between King Xuan and Mengzi, and highlight two further points. First, Mengzi does not always mean what he says. Dramatic context is crucial to interpretation, and the context reveals that Mengzi is manipulating the king with flattering falsehoods rather than persuading him with sound arguments. Second, although Mengzi maintains that human nature includes sprouts of virtue, he recognizes that some people’s sprouts are dormant or overgrown with weeds (vices). He provides a deceptive strategy for gaining interlocutors’ buy-in to the project of virtue cultivation, and other strategies (deliberately misdescribed as “extension”) for the eradication of vices.