Scholar Han Shun declined official summons and hid in Zhongnan Mountains amid late Wang Mang turmoil. Warlord Wei Xiao sent lavish gifts to invite him as tutor, yet Han insisted Wei visit him in mountains. While Wei’s faction perished, Han lived purely in seclusion till death.
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.
Mencius accepted gifts from regent Ji Ren and minister Chu Zi but only visited Ji Ren later. He judged ritual sincerity: Ji Ren could not travel, while Chu Zi avoided visiting, making his gift hollow and lacking genuine respect.
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.
King Wen of Zhou (c. 1152–1056 BCE) was the paramount leader of the Zhou people at the end of the Shang dynasty. His personal name was Ji Chang, and during the reign of the tyrannical King Zhou of Shang, he held the title “Western Count” (Western Lord or Xibo), ruling over the Zhou domain…