Mencius outlines three state levies: fabric, grain and labor. Wise rulers impose only one and ease the rest. Dual levies cause starvation; all three tear families apart, embodying his light-tax, people-centered benevolent governance.
Meng Xianzi said:“A family that keeps a team of four horses for chariots should not concern itself with raising chickens and pigs for profit;a household entitled to cut ice for ancestral rites should not raise cattle and sheep for gain;a state possessing a hundred war chariots should not employ ministers who amass wealth through…