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The Grand Historian remarks: I read the Book of Mengzi, and when I came to King Hui of Liang's question, 'By what means may my state be benefited?' I could never help but set down the book and sigh. He said, "Alas, profit truly is where disorder begins!" The Master rarely spoke of profit because he was constantly on guard against its source. The saying goes: 'To act with profit as one's guide brings much resentment.' From the Son of Heaven down to commoners, what difference is there in the harm caused by love of profit?
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Meng Ke was a man of Zou. He received instruction from a disciple of Zi Si. Once his Way was established, he traveled to serve King Xuan of Qi, but King Xuan could not employ him. He went to Liang, but King Hui of Liang did not adopt his words, viewing him instead as circuitous and far removed from practical affairs. At that time Qin employed Lord Shang, and the state grew rich while its army grew strong; Chu and Wei employed Wu Qi and won victories against weak enemies; Kings Wei and Xuan of Qi employed Sun Bin, Tian Ji, and men like them, until the feudal lords turned eastward to pay court to Qi. The world was just striving for vertical alliances and horizontal connections, considering conquest and invasion worthy pursuits, while Meng Ke expounded the virtues of Tang, Yu, and the Three Dynasties. This is why wherever he went, he did not find agreement. He withdrew and, together with Wan Zhang and others, arranged the Odes and Documents, explained the meaning of Confucius, and composed the seven chapters of Mengzi. Afterward there were the likes of Master Zou.
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其次騶衍，後孟子。 騶衍睹有國者益淫侈，不能尚德，若大雅整之於身，施及黎庶矣。 乃深觀陰陽消息而作怪迂之變，終始、大聖之篇十餘萬言。 其語閎大不經，必先驗小物，推而大之，至於無垠。 先序今以上至黃帝，學者所共術，大并世盛衰，因載其禨祥度制，推而遠之，至天地未生，窈冥不可考而原也。 先列中國名山大川，通谷禽獸，水土所殖，物類所珍，因而推之，及海外人之所不能睹。 稱引天地剖判以來，五德轉移，治各有宜，而符應若茲。 以為儒者所謂中國者，於天下乃八十一分居其一分耳。 中國名曰赤縣神州。 赤縣神州內自有九州，禹之序九州是也，不得為州數。 中國外如赤縣神州者九，乃所謂九州也。 於是有裨海環之，人民禽獸莫能相通者，如一區中者，乃為一州。 如此者九，乃有大瀛海環其外，天地之際焉。 其術皆此類也。 然要其歸，必止乎仁義節儉，君臣上下六親之施，始也濫耳。 王公大人初見其術，懼然顧化，其後不能行之。
The next was Zou Yan, who came after Mengzi. Zou Yan saw that rulers had become increasingly licentious and extravagant and were unable to honor virtue. If one could first rectify oneself, as in the Grand Odes, that influence would extend even to the common people. He then deeply observed the waxing and waning of yin and yang and created strange and circuitous changes, composing the chapters on 'End and Beginning' and 'Great Sage' totaling more than one hundred thousand words. His words were vast and unconventional. He would first verify small things, then extrapolate them to the great, extending to the boundless. He first arranged the sequence from the present upward to the Yellow Emperor, using the common arts of scholars to draw broad parallels with the world's rises and declines. He recorded their good fortunes and regulatory systems, then pushed them far back to before heaven and earth were born, to the profound darkness that cannot be examined, to find their origins. He first listed China's famous mountains and great rivers, the connecting valleys and birds and beasts, what the waters and soils produce, and precious things among the categories, then extrapolated from these to reach things overseas that people cannot see. He drew on the time when heaven and earth first divided, the succession of the Five Phases, the proper season for each mode of rule, and the omens that corresponded to them. He held that what the Confucians called China was only one part in eighty-one of the world. China was named Chixian Shenzhou. Within Chixian Shenzhou itself there are nine provinces: the Nine Provinces ordered by Yu. These are not counted among the outer zhou. Beyond China are nine regions like Chixian Shenzhou; these are what are called the Nine Provinces. Surrounding seas enclose each of them, so that people, birds, and beasts cannot pass from one to another. Each such region forms a single zhou. There are nine of these in all; beyond them, a great encircling ocean surrounds everything at the boundary of heaven and earth. His arts were all of this kind. Yet if one summarizes its purpose, it ultimately rests on benevolence, righteousness, frugality, and the duties between ruler and minister, superior and inferior, and the six kin; at first, however, his argument was vast and strange. When kings, dukes, and great men first encountered his arts, they were startled and looked toward reform, but afterward they could not put them into practice.
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Therefore, Master Zou was honored in Qi. When he went to Liang, King Hui welcomed him at the suburbs and performed the rituals of guest and host. When he went to Zhao, Lord Pingyuan stepped aside and personally swept his mat in deference. When he went to Yan, King Zhao embraced a broom and drove ahead, requested to arrange a disciple's seat to receive instruction, built the Jieshi Palace, and personally went to study under him. He composed 'Lord of Fate.' Such were his travels among the feudal lords and the honors he received. How could this be compared with Confucius wasting away in Chen and Cai, or Meng Ke suffering hardship in Qi and Liang? Formerly King Wu used benevolence and righteousness to attack Zhou and became king, but Bo Yi starved rather than eat Zhou grain; Duke Ling of Wei asked about battle formations, but Confucius did not answer; When King Hui of Liang planned to attack Zhao, Meng Ke cited the Great King’s departure from Bin. How could this have been intended merely to flatter the world and casually fit in! To hold a square tenon and wish to insert it into a round socket—can it enter? Some say: Yi Yin carried a tripod and urged Tang to become king; Baili Xi fed oxen under a cart and Duke Mu employed him to become hegemon. They made themselves fit first, then led them to the great way. Although Zou Yan’s words were unorthodox, perhaps he too had Yi Yin’s intention in speaking of cauldrons and tripods.
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淳于髡，齊人也。 博聞彊記，學無所主。 其諫說，慕晏嬰之為人也，然而承意觀色為務。 客有見髡於梁惠王，惠王屏左右，獨坐而再見之，終無言也。 惠王怪之，以讓客曰：「子之稱淳于先生，管、晏不及，及見寡人，寡人未有得也。 豈寡人不足為言邪？ 何故哉？」 客以謂髡。 髡曰：「固也。 吾前見王，王志在驅逐； 後復見王，王志在音聲：吾是以默然。」 客具以報王，王大駭，曰：「嗟乎，淳于先生誠聖人也！ 前淳于先生之來，人有獻善馬者，寡人未及視，會先生至。 後先生之來，人有獻謳者，未及試，亦會先生來。 寡人雖屏人，然私心在彼，有之。」 後淳于髡見，壹語連三日三夜無倦。 惠王欲以卿相位待之，髡因謝去。 於是送以安車駕駟，束帛加璧，黃金百鎰。 終身不仕。
Chunyu Kun was a man of Qi. He was broadly learned and had a strong memory, his studies having no particular master. In his remonstrances and persuasions he admired Yan Ying’s conduct, yet his work lay in accommodating a ruler’s intentions and reading his expressions. A guest introduced Kun to King Hui of Liang. The king dismissed his attendants, sat alone, and received him twice, but in the end Kun said nothing. King Hui was astonished and reproached the guest, saying: "You praised Master Chunyu as surpassing Guan and Yan, but when I met him, I gained nothing from it. Am I not worth speaking to? Why is that?" The guest told this to Kun. Kun replied, "Indeed. The first time I saw the king, his mind was fixed on the hunt; The second time I saw the king, his mind was on music. That is why I remained silent." The guest reported everything to the king, who was greatly astonished and exclaimed, "Alas! Master Chunyu is truly a sage! Before Master Chunyu arrived, someone had presented me with a fine horse. I had not yet examined it when the master came. On his later visit, someone presented a singer. I had not yet tried her out when the master came again. Although I dismissed my attendants, my private thoughts were still on those things. What he said was true." After that, when Chunyu Kun was received, he spoke continuously for three days and three nights without tiring. King Hui wished to honor him with the rank of minister and chancellor, but Kun declined and departed. He was then sent off with a comfortable four-horse carriage, bolts of silk, jade discs, and one hundred yi of gold. For the rest of his life he did not serve in office.
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Shen Dao was a man of Zhao. Tian Pian and Jie Zi were from Qi. Huan Yuan was a man of Chu. All studied the arts of Huang Lao and Dao De, and thus developed and arranged the sequence of their principles. Therefore, Shen Dao wrote twelve treatises, Huan Yuan wrote upper and lower chapters, and Tian Pian and Jie Zi all had their own writings.
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The King of Qi praised this. From Chunyu Kun on down, all were given the rank of Ranked Grandee. Residences were opened for them on broad, smooth avenues, with high gates and large houses. They were honored and favored. He surveyed the guests from all the feudal lords under heaven and declared that Qi could attract the worthy scholars of the world.
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Xun Qing was a man of Zhao. Only at fifty did he first come to Qi to study. Zou Yan's teachings were circuitous, grand, vast, and eloquent; Shi’s writing was ornate but difficult to put into practice; Chunyu Kun dwelt with him for a long time, and from time to time obtained good sayings from him. Therefore, the people of Qi sang: "Yan discourses on Heaven, Shi carves dragons, Kun roasts the hub and outdoes them." By the time of King Xiang of Qi, Tian Pian and men like him had all died, and Xun Qing was the senior teacher. Qi still maintained the ranks of the Ranked Grandees, and Xun Qing served three times as their libationer. Some men of Qi slandered Xun Qing, so he went to Chu, where Lord Chunshen appointed him magistrate of Lanling. When Lord Chunshen died, Xun Qing was removed from office and settled in Lanling. Li Si had once been his disciple and later became chancellor of Qin. Xun Qing hated the governance of that turbid age: ruined states and chaotic rulers followed one another, neglecting the great Way while relying on shamans and prayers, trusting in lucky and unlucky omens; he despised narrow-minded Confucians, and men like Zhuang Zhou who with slippery facetiousness disordered custom. Thereupon he traced the rise and fall of the conduct of Confucians, Mohists, and Daoists, arranged them in sequence, and wrote tens of thousands of words before he died. He was therefore buried in Lanling.
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Zhao also had Gongsun Long, with his debates on "hard and white" and "sameness and difference," as well as the sayings of Master Ju; Wei had Li Kui, who taught how to maximize the land's productive power; Chu had Shi Zi and Chang Lu; and Master Xu of A. From Mencius down to Xu Zi, many of their books circulate in the world, so I will not set out their biographies.