Mencius argues environment twists innate good nature, using barley and sensory analogies. Humans share universal tastes, hearing and sight; likewise all minds delight in principle and righteousness, proving sages and ordinary people share identical moral endowment.
Han Feizi tells Duke Ping’s tale: obsessed with decadent music, he ignored warnings, bringing drought and ruin.
by Han Fei Duke Ping of Jin was drinking with his officials. When he was thoroughly drunk and merry, he sighed and said: “Nothing is more joyful than being a ruler — no one dares to disobey a single word of mine!”
Shi Kuang was a renowned court musician of the Jin state during the Spring and Autumn period (approximately 770–476 BCE). His courtesy name was Ziye. Although blind, he was exceptionally skilled at playing the qin (a seven-stringed zither) and possessed extraordinarily acute hearing, enabling him to discern and judge musical pitches with remarkable precision.
Mencius said: “Even with Li Lou’s sharp eyes and Gongshu Ban’s (Lu Ban’s) superb craftsmanship, without compass and square, one cannot draw perfect circles or squares. Even with Shi Kuang’s acute hearing, without the six pitch standards, one cannot tune the five notes correctly.”
“I am seventy already,” said Duke Ping of Jin to his blind musician Shi Kuang. “Though I want very much to study and read some books, I feel it is too late.”