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 opposes Shenzi’s military expansion plan. Deploying untrained folk for war harms people. Ancient fiefdoms followed hundred-li rituals; seizing land through bloodshed violates benevolence. Ministers ought to guide rulers toward virtue, not conquest.
A man confuses Wuluzi by pitting survival needs against minor rituals. Mencius rejects this unequal comparison, using gold and wood analogies, and counters with immoral extreme acts to prove ritual morality must never be discarded for self-interest.
Mencius uses archery and carpentry metaphors. Master Yi demands full bow draws; master carpenters stick to compass and square. Moral cultivation likewise needs strict objective standards and the highest striving for perfect virtue.
All people crave honor, yet genuine nobility lies in inner morality rather than worldly status granted by nobles like Zhao Meng, who can revoke such glory. Fully fulfilled with benevolence and righteousness, one transcends material vanity and external praise.
Mencius differentiates heavenly moral ranks and secular official ranks. The ancients cultivated inner virtues naturally gaining status, while modern people practice morality only for office then abandon virtue, which will bring total loss in the end.