Chen Zhongzi shunned his brother’s ill-gotten salary and endured extreme poverty. When Chu’s king offered him premiership, his wife warned of political perils. The couple declined the post and fled to earn a living watering gardens.
Mencius criticizes Chen Zhongzi’s superficial integrity. His refusal of Qi’s throne is only trivial righteousness, yet he abandoned family and social ethics. One cannot judge a person’s core virtue merely by small, self-serving moral acts.
Kuang Zhang asked Mencius: “Isn’t Chen Zhongzi truly an honest and incorruptible man? He lived in Yuling and once went three days without food – so weak he couldn’t hear or see. There was a plum tree by a well; worms had eaten more than half the fruit. He crawled over, ate a few…