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Yuan Xian asked Confucius what constituted “shame.”The Master said, “When the state is well governed, it is right to draw a salary as an official; but when the state is poorly governed, to still draw a salary is shameful.”Yuan Xian then asked, “If someone can suppress competitiveness, boastfulness, resentment, and desire, can he be…
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Confucius said, “Wearing a tattered cotton robe and standing beside someone clad in luxurious fox or badger fur – yet feeling no shame: perhaps only Zilu can do this! As the Odes say, ‘Not envious, not greedy – how could one not be good?’ ” Zilu recited this verse for the rest of his…