When Qi suffers famine, people expect Mencius to urge the king to open granaries again. He uses Feng Fu’s story: the ex-tiger fighter reverted to old deeds to please villagers, yet other scholars mocked him, showing Mencius sticks to his official retreat principles.
Mencius contrasts Confucius’ departures: he left his native Lu slowly out of deep affection, yet fled Qi hastily with uncooked rice. This shows Confucian flexible propriety—tender sentiment for homeland, decisive sense for foreign states.
Zixia stresses trust as the foundation of governance and advice. A gentleman wins people’s trust before assigning labor and gains a ruler’s trust before offering remonstrance; without trust, his efforts will be misread as oppression or slander.
The Master said, “How upright was Shi Yu! When the state was well governed, he was as straight as an arrow; when the state was poorly governed, he was still as straight as an arrow.What a noble person was Qu Boyu! When the state was well governed, he served in office; when the state…
In previous articles, we discussed why Yuan Shu launched an attack on Xuzhou and how he managed to turn Lü Bu against his ally, Liu Bei. Yuan Shu won this war, but after exhausting his efforts and paying a heavy price, he gained nothing. Liu Bei lost—utterly and completely. The only beneficiary was Lü…
In Chapter 8 of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Wang Yun, the loyal Han minister, devises a cunning plan to destroy the tyrant Dong Zhuo. At the heart of this scheme is Diao Chan, a beautiful courtesan in Wang Yun’s household.
When driving out venal officials and flattering courtiers, it is vital to allow them some way of escape.