Establish the words
Begin with what Mencius actually says. Keep the speaker, audience, context, and canonical location visible.
Do not inherit the answer · Rebuild the argument
Take it apart. Then understand it.
First-principles reading does not turn an ancient text into a modern slogan. It temporarily sets authority aside and asks which observations, assumptions, and inferences make an argument stand.
Recover the problem
Separate the surface question from the underlying conflict: profit, order, human nature, or responsibility.
Expose the premise
State the assumptions that remain implicit, such as whether compassion is innate or institutions amplify choice.
Inspect the reasoning
Trace how the conclusion follows and what work is done by analogy, reversal, reductio, and observation.
Test the boundary
Ask under which conditions the principle holds and which counterexamples would make it fail.
Return to the present
Do not force an application. Turn the principle into a question that can be observed, debated, and tested today.