1. Mencius said,"Those who give counsel to the great should despise them, and not look at their pomp and display.
2. "Halls several times eight cubits high, with beams projecting several cubits;—these, if my wishes were to be realized, I would not have. Food spread before me over ten cubits square, and attendants and concubines to the amount of hundreds;—these, though my wishes were realized, I would not have. Pleasure and wine,and the dash of hunting, with thousands of chariots following after me;—these, though my wishes were realized, I would not have. What they esteem are what I would have nothing to do with; what I esteem are the rules of the ancients.—Why should I stand in awe of them?"
3. Describes the virtue that is next in degree, equally observant of right, but by an intellectual constraint.法=天理之当然, "the proper course indicated by Heavenly principles".
CHAPTER 34. HE WHO UNDERTAKES TO COUNSEL THE GREAT, SHOULD BE MORALLY ABOVE THEM.
1. 大人,—"great men". The phrase is to be understood not of the truly great, as in ch. xxv, 6,et al., but of the socially great, with an especially reference to the princes of the time, dignified by their position, but without corresponding moral qualities.
2. 堂高, 云云, all the corresponding clauses, are under the government of some words like 彼大人有,—"those great men have", to which 我弗为,—"I would not do" respond. 榱题,—these may be seen in the more important temples and public building throughout China, projecting all round, beneath the eaves. 般乐,—see II, Pt. I, iv.
4. 驱骋田猎,—"spurring and galloping in hunting".在彼者,—"what are in them", the things which they esteem so.
