Upright scholar Xia Fu was falsely framed as a partisan by corrupt eunuchs. To spare others from disaster, he cut his beard, disguised himself and labored as a metalworker in mountains. Even after amnesty, he stayed in exile until the governor fetched him after three attempts.
Mencius traces the sage Way’s five-century transmission from Yao-Shun to Confucius via direct witnesses and later inheritors. A century after Confucius, he grieves no successor carries the orthodox line, revealing his solemn mission to uphold Confucian wisdom.
Mencius rejects blind fatalism. All events belong to destiny, yet gentlemen only accept righteous fate. Wise people evade unnecessary risks; dying for the Way is proper fate, while death from crime is not.
Mencius condemns ministers who boost rulers’ wealth and military power as people’s robbers. They aid tyrants if rulers disregard benevolence. States built on such utilitarian force lack moral legitimacy and will collapse quickly.
Mencius depicts a moral political decline: Five Hegemons betrayed the Three Kings’ ideal order; current lords break the Kuiqiu Alliance’s five rules. Ministers who abet rulers’ misdeeds bear graver guilt than those who merely tolerate evil.
The Master said, “To have faults and not correct them – that is truly a fault.”
The Master said, “The noble person seeks from himself; the petty person seeks from others.”