Duke Wen of Teng asked Mencius: “Teng is a small state. We’ve exhausted every effort to serve the large states, yet we still cannot escape their aggression. What should we do?”
Mencius went to see King Xiang of Liang. Coming out from the interview, he said to his companion, “When I looked at him from a distance, he did not appear to be a sovereign; when I came up to him, I found nothing about him that inspired respect. “