Han Feizi notes eels and silkworms look frightening like snakes and caterpillars, yet people handle them boldly for profit. Gain drives ordinary folks as brave as famed warriors Meng Ben and Zhuan Zhu.
Confucius said, “I have never seen anyone who loves virtue as much as they love beauty.”
The Master said:“How supreme is the Doctrine of the Mean!Yet among the people, few have been able to practice it for long!”
The Qin Shi (in the Book of Documents) says:“If there is a minister – simple and sincere, possessing no special talents,yet his heart is broad, peaceful, and truly capacious.When others have ability, he rejoices as if it were his own;when others are virtuous and wise, he genuinely admires them,praising them even more fervently than…
Following in the footsteps of Confucius, Mencius (Mengzi, 372–289 BCE) stands as the second great sage of Confucianism, whose teachings solidified and expanded the philosophical system laid by his predecessor. His work, Mencius, a collection of dialogues, debates, and moral arguments, is not merely a supplement to The Analects – it is a foundational…
Mencius said: “When people in the world talk about ‘human nature’, they are really just talking about the ‘inherent patterns’ of things. And these patterns are fundamentally rooted in ‘natural course and inherent tendencies’. What we dislike about cleverness is that it often forces artificial interpretations. But if the wise acted like Yu the…