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b. Rán 然 often functions as an adverbial suffix that may turn an adjective or even a verb
into an adverb. In this passage, the term tíanrán 填然 is an example of this function. In
other texts, precisely the same function is performed by rú 如. As adverbial suffixes, both
worlds function much like -ly in English.

10.3 Complex sentence adjuncts (hidden “if . . . then . . .” structures)

In the sentence
察鄰國之政無如寡人之用心者

it is difficult to link the first phrase, governed by the verb chá 察, with the second,
governed by the verb wú 無. The first phrase may be taken as a complex sentence adjunct,
conveyed in English by an initial phrase, “Under the conditions of,” as in: “Under the
conditions of looking into (察) X, there lacks (無) Y.” In both English and WYW, this
would be more simply (and accurately) conveyed by taking the sentence as an “if . . .
then . . .” sentence: “If [one] looks into X, then there lacks Y.” In the WYW, this solution
would involve positing an ellipsed zé 則.

10.4 Radical ellipsis

In the opening portions of Mencius’s speech, we once again encounter the type of radical
ellipsis we saw at the close of Text 8. To help make the text scan, you should know that
its rhetoric suggests that once Mencius begins employing his battle metaphor our
imaginations are supposed to supply hand and body gestures that a speaker might use to
clarify the narrative flow.