From "I Go to Serve the Country" recorded by Mencius' disciples in the pre-Qin period.
Excerpt from the original:
Five acres of houses, trees are mulberry, and fifty people can wear clothes and silks. Chickens, dolphins and dogs are all domestic animals, so there is no time to waste. Seventy people can eat meat. A hundred acres of land, if you don't hurry, a family of several can be hungry; I sincerely hope that the godson of the cult will be filial, and the winners will not be on the road. Seventy people eat meat, clothes and silk, and the Lebanese are neither hungry nor cold, but they are not kings and have nothing.
Dogs eat people and don't know what to do, nor do they know when they are hungry. If a person dies, they will say, "It's not me, it's age." What's the difference between stabbing people and killing people, saying,' It's not me, it's a soldier'? The king is innocent, and the people in the world are heavy. "
Translation:
Mulberry trees are planted on five acres of residential land, and people aged 50 can wear silk fabrics. Don't delay the breeding opportunities of chickens, pigs and dogs. Only people aged 70 can eat meat. A hundred acres of land, without delaying its farming season, can save a family from hunger.
Carefully set up school education, repeatedly tell the people the truth of respecting the old and loving the young, so that this gray-haired old man will no longer walk on the road with heavy objects on his head. 70-year-old people can wear silk and eat meat. None of the people are hungry and cold. No one has ever unified the world and won't be king.
"Pigs and dogs eat their food and don't stop; There are people starving to death on the road, and I don't know how to open a warehouse for relief. When people die, they say,' It's not my fault, it's because I'm young.' What's the difference between this statement and killing someone with a knife and saying,' I didn't kill anyone, it was a murder weapon'? Your Majesty, don't blame Niancheng, then everyone in the world will come to submit. "