Mencius claims curbing excessive desires is the finest way to nurture one’s innate good heart. Few desires let people retain most original virtue, while rampant cravings dim one’s inherent moral nature, forming a core Confucian self-cultivation principle.
Mencius states fine words carry deep truths through plain speech; sound principles bring wide good with simple rules. Gentlemen cultivate themselves to pacify the world, criticizing those who ignore self-cultivation yet harshly demand virtue from others.
Meng Xianzi said:“A family that keeps a team of four horses for chariots should not concern itself with raising chickens and pigs for profit;a household entitled to cut ice for ancestral rites should not raise cattle and sheep for gain;a state possessing a hundred war chariots should not employ ministers who amass wealth through…
The Qin Shi (in the Book of Documents) says:“If there is a minister – simple and sincere, possessing no special talents,yet his heart is broad, peaceful, and truly capacious.When others have ability, he rejoices as if it were his own;when others are virtuous and wise, he genuinely admires them,praising them even more fervently than…
What is meant by “governing the state must begin with regulating one’s family” is this:There has never been anyone who could not teach his own family yet was able to instruct others.