When Mencius  was a little boy, his father died. Mencius and his mother were quite poor. One day Mencius returned home from school and found his mother making some cloth. It was very beautiful and expensive. "How much of the book have you read today?" Mencius' mother asked him. "I haven't read any of it yet." Mencius replied, "I played with some friends of mine in the fields." When his mother heard this, she picked up a pair of scissors and cut the cloth. "Why did you cut your cloth?" Mencius asked, "It was beautiful but now you've wasted it." "You have wasted your time," his mother said, "now I have wasted mine. Look what terrible things we have done." Mencius learnt a lot from this lesson. After that, he always studied hard. ,. When did this story happen?
Not long before liberation . More than 2000 years ago. About 400 years ago. In the 18th century.