This paper discusses how perfective le influences temporal relations. I argue that, in Mandarin, an aspect indirectly influences temporal relations via rhetorical relations in two ways: first, based on its semantics, an aspect specifies a default rhetorical relation, which in turn determines a temporal relation, when there is no cue or other information in the discourse indicating otherwise, and second, an aspect sets up a temporal constraint, which the temporal relations specified by rhetorical relations must obey. Perfective le has been argued to present a situation as a whole. Based on its semantics, I argue that perfective le specifies a default rhetorical relation Narration, which indicates temporal progression, and sets up a temporal constraint: the internal process of a situation presented by perfective le cannot be accessed unless it is necessary. In addition, this paper proposes a new temporal relation for Narration and one for Elaboration. When a state that goes with perfective le is connected to the following sentence by Narration, it does not have to be the case that the whole state temporally precedes the situation described by the following sentence. Instead, it suffices that the starting point of the state temporally precedes the latter situation. Elaboration does not necessarily specify temporal inclusion, contra Asher & Lascarides (2003:160). When an achievement presented by perfective le is elaborated on, the situations providing more details temporally precede the achievement.