Reading group: Mencius and Gaozi on human nature (6A1–6A6), in one sitting

A short one, for anyone who wants a single sitting rather than a month. The first six sections of Mencius Book 6A are a debate with Gaozi about human nature, and they are some of the best arguments-by-image in any tradition.

What to read: 6A1–6A6, about four pages in most translations. James Legge's translation is in the public domain and is online, with the Chinese, at the Chinese Text Project.

What happens:

• 6A1. Gaozi: human nature is like willow wood, and goodness like the cups and bowls carved from it. Mencius: then you would have to do violence to people to make them good.
• 6A2. Gaozi: nature is like whirling water; open a channel to the east and it flows east. Mencius: water may not care about east and west, but does it not care about up and down?
• 6A3–6A5. Whether "nature" simply means what we are born with, and whether rightness comes from inside us or from outside.
• 6A6. Mencius's own statement: everyone has the feelings of compassion, shame, respect, and approving and disapproving, and these are benevolence, rightness, propriety and wisdom already in us.

One question to bring: are these images arguments, or illustrations of conclusions already reached? Mencius turns Gaozi's own pictures against him. Is that fair play?

Replies in this thread. No need to have read anything else first.