Mencius once asked King Xuan of Qi:
“Suppose one of Your Majesty’s ministers entrusted his wife and children to a friend before traveling to Chu state. When he returned, he found them freezing and starving. What should be done about such a friend?”
The king replied without hesitation,
“Cut ties with him!”
Mencius continued,
“What if the chief judge fails to manage his subordinates properly?”
“Dismiss him,” said the king.
Then Mencius pressed further:
“And what if the entire realm is in disorder – people suffer, harvests fail, and peace vanishes from the four borders? What then?”
At this, King Xuan turned his head, glanced left and right, and changed the subject.
孟子謂齊宣王曰：「王之臣有託其妻子於其友，而之楚遊者。比其反也，則凍餒其妻子，則如之何？」
王曰：「棄之。」
曰：「士師不能治士，則如之何？」
王曰：「已之。」
曰：「四境之內不治，則如之何？」
王顧左右而言他。
Note
This exchange, recorded in Mencius: King Hui of Liang II, reveals Mencius’s masterful use of analogy to confront power with moral accountability. By starting with personal trust and bureaucratic duty, he escalates to the ultimate responsibility: that of the ruler himself.
In Confucian political thought, the king is not above judgment. As Mencius famously declared elsewhere, “The people are the most important; the state comes second; the ruler is least.”
If a friend is cast off for neglecting a family, and an official is removed for incompetence, how can a king evade blame when the whole nation suffers under his rule?
King Xuan’s evasive reaction – “looking left and right and talking of something else” – has become a timeless idiom in Chinese for dodging an uncomfortable truth. Historically, despite Qi’s military strength during his reign, internal governance was weak, taxes heavy, and the court indulgent. Mencius’s repeated calls for benevolent governance went largely unheeded.
Yet this moment captures the essence of Confucian statesmanship: loyalty to principle, not to power. True service to the ruler means daring to speak truth – even when the king would rather look away.
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