Mencius (Mèngzǐ 孟子) — Benevolent Government, the Four Sprouts, and the People First

N=1 fine-grained distillation (a selection, not the complete Mencius). Sources: James Legge, The Sayings of Mencius (Book I, "King Hwuy of Lëang"), reprinted in Chinese Literature (Gutenberg #10056); supplemented for the four-sprouts (II.A.6), human-nature-as-water (VI.A.2), and people-first (VII.B.14) passages from James Legge, The Works of Mencius, in The Four Books (Internet Archive — The four books). Scope note: the Legge Chinese Literature text is a clean Book-I selection; the supplemented passages are cited to the Four Books archive. Quote anchors are working text pending Phase 7 char-for-char verification. Methodology & tags: ../00-methodology.md. Citation: Mencius <book>.<part> (Legge numbering).

Book's role

Mencius (c. 372–289 BCE) is the second great Confucian voice. He develops ren and yi into a political program (humane government, people-first) and supplies Confucianism's anthropology: human nature is innately good, equipped with four "sprouts" of virtue that need only cultivation. Book I, his audiences with kings, is the most-read portion; the human-nature passages (Books II, VI) are his philosophical core.

Atomic statements

Men-C1: Benevolence and righteousness, not profit, must be a ruler's only themes; if profit comes first, all will snatch and the kingdom is endangered. (FOUNDATIONAL / YI+GOVERN)

Mencius I.A.1: "Why must your Majesty use that word 'profit'? What I am likewise provided with are counsels to benevolence and righteousness; and these are my only topics… if righteousness be put last and profit first, they will not be satisfied without snatching all."
Stance: assert · Importance: core · Untranslatable: ren (benevolence) + yi (righteousness) vs li 利 (profit)

Men-C2: True kingship is to share one's pleasures and resources with the people; the ancients enjoyed their parks because the people rejoiced with them. (OPERATIONAL / GOVERN+REN)

Mencius I.A.2: "The ancients caused their people to have pleasure as well as themselves, and therefore they could enjoy it."
Stance: assert · Importance: supporting

Men-C3: To let people starve amid plenty and blame the harvest is to kill them and blame the weapon; the parent of the people may not so govern. (FOUNDATIONAL / GOVERN+REN)

Mencius I.A.3: "When men die, you say, 'It is not owing to me; it is owing to the year.' In what does this differ from stabbing a man and killing him, and then saying, 'It was not I; it was the weapon'?"
Stance: assert · Importance: core

Men-C4: Misgovernment that starves the people while beasts are fat is "leading on beasts to devour men." (FOUNDATIONAL / GOVERN+REN)

Mencius I.A.4: "In your stalls there are fat beasts… But your people have the look of hunger, and in the fields there are those who have died of famine. This is leading on beasts to devour men."
Stance: assert · Importance: core

Men-C5: Benevolent government — light punishments and taxes, secure livelihood, time to honour parents and elders — makes a ruler invincible: "The benevolent has no enemy." (FOUNDATIONAL / GOVERN+REN+FAMILY)

Mencius I.A.5: "If your Majesty will indeed dispense a benevolent government to the people, being sparing in the use of punishments and fines, and making the taxes and levies of produce light… In accordance with this is the saying, 'The benevolent has no enemy!'"
Stance: assert · Importance: core

Men-C6: He who has no pleasure in killing men can unite the kingdom; the people would turn to him as water flows downward. (OPERATIONAL / GOVERN+REN)

Mencius I.A.6: "He who has no pleasure in killing men can so unite it… the people would go to him as water flows downwards with a rush, which no one can repress."
Stance: assert · Importance: supporting

Men-C7: The king's pity for a frightened ox shows a heart of ren already sufficient for kingship; the task is to extend that kindness from animals to the people. (FOUNDATIONAL / REN+GOVERN)

Mencius I.A.7: "The heart seen in this is sufficient to carry you to the Royal sway… Now here is kindness sufficient to reach to animals, and yet no benefits are extended from it to the people— how is this?… your Majesty's not attaining to the Royal sway is because you do not do it, and not because you are not able to do it."
Stance: assert · Importance: core · Untranslatable: ren extended outward

Men-C8: Every human has a heart that cannot bear the suffering of others — seeing a child about to fall into a well, anyone feels alarm, not from any motive of gain. (FOUNDATIONAL / REN+SELF)

Mencius II.A.6: "Even nowadays, if men suddenly see a child about to fall into a well, they will without exception experience a feeling of alarm and distress. They will feel so, not as a ground on which they may gain the favor of the child's parents, nor… the praise of their neighbors and friends."
Stance: assert · Importance: core

Men-C9: The four sprouts: commiseration is the principle of ren, shame of yi, modesty of li, the sense of right and wrong of wisdom — each innate to all. (FOUNDATIONAL / REN+YI+LI+SELF)

Mencius II.A.6: "The feeling of commiseration is the principle of benevolence. The feeling of shame and dislike is the principle of righteousness. The feeling of modesty and complaisance is the principle of propriety. The feeling of approving and disapproving is the principle of knowledge."
Stance: assert · Importance: core · Untranslatable: the four sprouts (duan) of ren, yi, li, wisdom

Men-C10: Human nature tends to good as water tends to flow downward; nature is not indifferent to good and evil. (FOUNDATIONAL / SELF+HEAVEN)

Mencius VI.A.2: "Water indeed will flow indifferently to the east or west, but will it flow indifferently up or down? The tendency of man's nature to good is like the tendency of water to flow downwards."
Stance: assert · Importance: core

Men-C11: In a nation the people are the most important element, the spirits of land and grain next, and the sovereign the lightest. (FOUNDATIONAL / GOVERN)

Mencius VII.B.14: "The people are the most important element in a nation; the spirits of the land and grain are the next; the sovereign is the lightest."
Stance: assert · Importance: core

Step 4 — Clusters

Cluster	Atomic statements	Intent
Righteousness over profit	C1	A ruler's themes are ren and yi, never gain
Humane government & shared good	C2, C3, C4, C5, C6	Secure the people's livelihood, share pleasures, govern without cruelty
Extending the heart	C7, C8	The innate compassionate heart is to be extended to the people
Innate goodness (anthropology)	C8, C9, C10	The four sprouts are innate; nature tends to good as water flows down
People first	C11	The people outweigh even the sovereign

Step 5 — Internal tensions

None genuine. The "no enemy" and "unite the kingdom" claims (C5–C6) are political consequences of, not rivals to, the compassion claims (C7–C9).

Step 6 — Synthesized book principles

Men-P1: A ruler's themes are ren and yi, never profit

Benevolence and righteousness, not profit (li), must order a state from top to bottom; put profit first and all will snatch until the kingdom is endangered.

Tier: FOUNDATIONAL · Domain: YI+GOVERN · Covers: C1 · Evidence: Mencius I.A.1 · Untranslatable: yi vs li 利

Men-P2: Humane government secures and shares the people's good

The humane ruler secures livelihood (light taxes and punishments, leisure to honour parents), shares his pleasures with the people, and never lets them starve and blames the year; such a ruler "has no enemy."

Tier: FOUNDATIONAL · Domain: GOVERN+REN+FAMILY · Covers: C2, C3, C4, C5, C6 · Evidence: Mencius I.A.2–6 · Untranslatable: ren government

Men-P3: Govern by extending the innate compassionate heart

The heart that pities a frightened animal is already ren enough for kingship; the moral and political task is simply to extend that kindness from the near to the people — failure is unwillingness, not inability.

Tier: FOUNDATIONAL · Domain: REN+GOVERN · Covers: C7, C8 · Evidence: Mencius I.A.7, II.A.6 · Untranslatable: ren

Men-P4: Human nature is innately good — the four sprouts

Every person is born with four "sprouts": commiseration (the principle of ren), shame (of yi), modesty (of li), and the sense of right and wrong (of wisdom). Nature tends to good as water tends to flow downward; virtue is cultivation of what is already there, not implantation of what is foreign.

Tier: FOUNDATIONAL · Domain: SELF+REN+YI+LI · Covers: C8, C9, C10 · Evidence: Mencius II.A.6, VI.A.2 · Untranslatable: the four duan (sprouts)

Men-P5: The people are the most important element in a nation

The people outweigh the spirits of the land, and both outweigh the sovereign; legitimacy and the very point of rule rest on the people's good.

Tier: FOUNDATIONAL · Domain: GOVERN · Covers: C11 · Evidence: Mencius VII.B.14

Step 7 — Traceability

Principle	Atomic statements	Passages
Men-P1	C1	Mencius I.A.1
Men-P2	C2, C3, C4, C5, C6	Mencius I.A.2–6
Men-P3	C7, C8	Mencius I.A.7, II.A.6
Men-P4	C8, C9, C10	Mencius II.A.6, VI.A.2
Men-P5	C11	Mencius VII.B.14

Step 8 — Quality

Coverage: the load-bearing Mencian doctrines — righteousness-over-profit (I.A.1), humane/people-first government (I.A, VII.B.14), and innate goodness / the four sprouts (II.A.6, VI.A.2) — are each captured.
Orphaned / scope: this is a selection. Large tracts of Mencius (the full Books II–VII, the debates with Kao-tzu beyond VI.A.2, the dialogues on cultivating the qi and the "flood-like qi," the discussions of the worthy minister and the right of rebellion) are NOT distilled. The Four Books archive supplies the three supplemented passages only.
Principles: 5 (within range).
Traceability: 100%.

Step 9 — Validation

Standalone comprehension (frame-independent): Men-P1 (rightness over profit), Men-P2 (humane government, care for the poor), and Men-P5 (the people outweigh the ruler) read as intelligible to an outsider and are strong cross-tradition convergence candidates — care for the vulnerable and accountable, people-serving power converge very widely (cf. the prophetic justice tradition; Catholic Social Doctrine's common good and people-first emphasis). The key warrant-level flag for the Atlas is Men-P4: human nature is innately good (the four sprouts; water flowing downward). The claim (humans have a real capacity for virtue) converges loosely, but the warrant — that goodness is the natural, default tendency requiring only cultivation, with no doctrine of a fall or original sin — diverges sharply from Augustinian Christian anthropology and is a distinctive Confucian-Mencian position worth preserving.