If others do not respond to your love with love, look into your own benevolence; if others fail to respond to your attempts to govern them with order… - Mencius

Cố thiên tương giáng đại nhiệm ư thị nhân dã, tất tiên khổ kỳ tâm chí, lao kỳ gân cốt, ngạ kỳ thể phu...

Mencius said: “In good years, young men are mostly fine. In bad years, they’re mostly cruel and violent. It isn’t that Heaven endows them with such different capacities, only that their hearts are mired in such different situations. Think about barley: if you plant the seeds carefully at the same time and in same place, they’ll all sprout and grow ripe by summer solstice. If they don’t grow the same – it’s because of inequities in richness of soil, amounts of rainfall, or the care given them by farmers. And so, all members belonging to a given species of thing are the same. Why should humans be the lone exception? The sage and I – surely we belong to the same species of thing.

“That’s why Master Lung said: Even if a cobbler makes a pair of sandals for feet he’s never seen, he certainly won’t make a pair of baskets. Sandals are all alike because feet are the same throughout all beneath Heaven. And all tongues savor the same flavors. Yi Ya was just the first to discover what our tongues savor. If taste differed by nature from person to person, the way horses and dogs differ by species from me, then how is it people throughout all beneath Heaven savor the tastes Yi Ya savored? People throughout all beneath Heaven share Yi Ya’s tastes, therefore people’s tongues are alike throughout all beneath Heaven.

“It’s true for the ear too: people throughout all beneath Heaven share Maestro K’uang’s sense of music, therefore people’s ears are alike thoughout all beneath Heaven. And it’s no less true for the eye: no one throughout all beneath Heaven could fail to see the beauty of Lord Tu. If you can’t see his beauty, you simply haven’t eyes. “Hence it is said: All tongues savor the same flavors, all ears hear the same music, and all eyes see the same beauty. Why should the heart alone not be alike in us all? But what is it about our hearts that is alike? Isn’t it what we call reason and Duty? The sage is just the first to discover what is common to our hearts. Hence, reason and

Sima Qian said, “When I read the Mengzi and come to the part where King Hui of Liang asks, How can I profit my state? I always set down the book and sigh, Alas! Profit genuinely is the beginning of chaos. Kongzi ‘seldom spoke of profit’ (Analects 9.1) and always guarded against it at its source. Hence, he said, ‘If in your affairs you abandon yourself to the pursuit of profit, you will arouse much resentment’ (4.12). Whether one is the Son of Heaven or a commoner, how does the confusion that is fondness for profit differ?