Mencius criticizes fame-driven hypocrites. Such people may surrender a large kingdom for good repute, yet reveal greed and discontent over trivial food gains, showing hollow virtue fails small, unobserved tests.
Gongsun Chou cites Gaozi’s claim that Xiao Bian, full of resentment, is a petty man’s poem. Mencius refutes this: its grief springs from deep familial love. He balances filial emotion, noting resentment fits grave parental faults yet not trivial ones.
Someone asked, “What about repaying resentment with virtue?”The Master replied, “Then what would you use to repay virtue? Repay resentment with uprightness, and repay virtue with virtue.”
Yuan Xian asked Confucius what constituted “shame.”The Master said, “When the state is well governed, it is right to draw a salary as an official; but when the state is poorly governed, to still draw a salary is shameful.”Yuan Xian then asked, “If someone can suppress competitiveness, boastfulness, resentment, and desire, can he be…