Book 4B · Li Lou, Part Two

8.1 Mencius said, “Shun was born in Zhufeng, moved to Fuxia, and died at Mingtiao: he was a man of the eastern tribes. King Wen was born at Qizhou and died at Biying: he was a man of the western tribes. Their homes lay more than a thousand li apart, and more than a thousand years separated their ages. Yet when they attained their aims and put them into practice in the central lands, their ways matched like the two halves of a tally. Sages before and after follow the same principle.”

8.2 When Zichan governed Zheng, he used his own carriage to ferry people across the Zhen and Wei rivers. Mencius said, “He was kind, but did not understand government. Had footbridges been finished in the eleventh month and carriage bridges in the twelfth, the people would not have been troubled by crossing. When a noble person governs fairly, he may even clear the road for his own passage. But how could he ferry every person across? If a governor tries to please everyone individually, there are not enough days in the year.”

8.3 Mencius told King Xuan of Qi, “If a ruler treats ministers as his hands and feet, they treat him as heart and belly. If he treats them as dogs and horses, they treat him like a stranger. If he treats them as dirt and weeds, they treat him as an enemy.”The king said, “The rites require mourning for a former ruler. What sort of ruler deserves that mourning?”“When he heeds advice and acts on counsel so that his benefits reach the people, and if a minister must leave, sends someone to guide him to the border and sends word ahead to his destination; when, only if the minister has not returned after three years, he reclaims the minister's land and dwelling—these are the three courtesies. Such a ruler should be mourned. But now a minister's advice is ignored, his words unheard, and no benefits reach the people. If he must leave, the ruler seizes and detains him and pursues him to the place he goes; on the day he leaves, the ruler takes his land and dwelling. That is an enemy. Why would anyone mourn an enemy?”

8.4 Mencius said, “If a ruler kills a man of service who is innocent, his ministers may leave him; if he executes innocent commoners, the men of service may depart.”

8.5 Mencius said, “When a ruler is humane, all are humane; when a ruler is righteous, all are righteous.”

8.6 Mencius said, “A great person will not perform a rite that is not truly ritual propriety, or an act called righteous that is not truly right.”

8.7 Mencius said, “Those who follow the middle Way should nurture those who do not, and the capable should nurture the incapable. That is why people delight in worthy fathers and elder brothers. If the balanced abandoned the unbalanced and the capable the incapable, there would be less than an inch between the worthy and the unworthy.”

8.8 Mencius said, “Only when there are things a person refuses to do can that person accomplish anything.”

8.9 Mencius said, “If you speak of another's faults, how will you deal with what follows?”

8.10 Mencius said, “Confucius never went to extremes.”

8.11 Mencius said, “A great person does not insist on keeping every promise in words or carrying every action through: rightness alone is the guide.”

8.12 Mencius said, “A great person is one who does not lose the heart of a newborn child.”

8.13 Mencius said, “Nourishing parents while they live is not the measure of the great task; sending them to their burial is.”

8.14 Mencius said, “A noble person goes deeply into the Way because he wants to grasp it for himself. Grasp it for yourself and you will dwell in it securely; dwell in it securely and you will draw deeply on it; draw deeply on it and, wherever you turn, you will encounter its source. This is why a noble person seeks to grasp it for himself.”

8.15 Mencius said, “One studies widely and explains in detail in order to return at last to speaking simply.”

8.16 Mencius said, “No one has ever won people over by using his goodness to subdue them. Nourish them through goodness, and only then can you win over the world. No one has ever become king while the world failed to submit in its heart.”

8.17 Mencius said, “Words without substance are inauspicious. The true calamity is that they obscure the worthy.”

8.18 Master Xu asked, “Confucius often exclaimed about water, ‘Water! Water!’ What did he admire in it?”Mencius replied, “The water of a living spring flows on day and night without stopping. It fills each hollow before moving on, until it reaches the four seas. That is the way of a thing with a source, and that is what he admired. Rain gathered in the seventh and eighth months may fill ditches and channels, but without a living source it dries up almost as you watch. That is why a noble person is ashamed when his reputation exceeds the reality.”

8.19 Mencius said, “What distinguishes human beings from beasts is very slight. Ordinary people cast it away; noble people preserve it. Shun understood the multitude of things and discerned human relationships. He acted out of humaneness and rightness; he did not merely perform humane and righteous acts.”

8.20 Mencius said, “Yu disliked strong wine and loved good counsel. Tang held to the middle and appointed worthy men regardless of where they came from. King Wen saw the people as though they were wounded, and looked toward the Way as though he had not yet seen it. King Wu did not neglect those near him or forget those far away. The Duke of Zhou sought to unite the virtues of the three kings and practice these four things. When something would not fit, he raised his head and pondered it night after day; if he found the answer, he sat waiting for dawn.”

8.21 Mencius said, “When the traces of true kingship disappeared, the Odes fell silent; when the Odes fell silent, the Spring and Autumn Annals arose. The Records of Jin, the Taowu of Chu, and the Annals of Lu were alike. Their subject was the age of Duke Huan of Qi and Duke Wen of Jin; their words came from the historians. Confucius said, ‘The moral judgment, however, I have privately taken as my own.’”

8.22 Mencius said, “The influence of a noble person ends after five generations; the influence of an ordinary person also ends after five. I was never among Confucius's disciples, but I have privately learned his teaching from others.”

8.23 Mencius said, “If you could accept a thing or decline it, accepting harms your integrity. If you could give or withhold it, giving harms your generosity. If you could die or live, dying harms your courage.”

8.24 Feng Meng learned archery from Yi and mastered everything Yi taught. Thinking Yi the only man in the world better than himself, he killed him. Mencius said, “Yi, too, bore some blame.”Gongming Yi said, “Surely he bore none?”“Little, perhaps; but how could he bear none? The people of Zheng sent Zizhuo Ruzi to attack Wei, and Wei sent Yugong Zhisi in pursuit. Zizhuo Ruzi said, ‘My illness has seized me today; I cannot hold my bow. I am a dead man!’ He asked his driver, ‘Who is pursuing me?’ ‘Yugong Zhisi.’ ‘Then I will live,’ he said. His driver asked, ‘Yugong Zhisi is a skilled archer of Wei. Why do you say you will live?’ ‘He learned archery from Yingong Zhita, who learned from me. Yingong Zhita is an upright man, and he must have chosen an upright pupil.’ When Yugong Zhisi arrived, he asked, ‘Why are you not holding your bow, Master?’ ‘My illness has seized me today; I cannot hold it.’ ‘I learned archery from Yingong Zhita, who learned it from you. I cannot bear to turn your teaching against you and harm you. But I am on my ruler's business, and cannot neglect it.’ He took arrows, struck them against his carriage wheel to break off their metal heads, shot four of them, and returned.”

8.25 Mencius said, “If the beautiful Xizi were covered in filth, everyone would hold their noses as they passed her. Even an ugly person, after fasting and bathing, may offer sacrifice to the Lord on High.”

8.26 Mencius said, “When people discuss human nature, they speak of its ordinary tendencies. The foundation of those tendencies is what comes naturally. What I dislike in cleverness is its forcing of things. If the clever acted as Yu did in channeling the waters, there would be nothing to dislike. Yu channeled water by following the course where no forcing was needed. If the clever likewise followed what required no forcing, their cleverness would be great indeed. Heaven is high and the stars far away; yet if you seek out their regular courses, you can sit and calculate the winter solstice a thousand years ahead.”

8.27 Gongxingzi lost a son, and the right-hand minister came to offer condolences. On entering the gate, some approached and spoke with the minister, while others went to his seat and spoke there. Mencius did not speak with him. The minister was displeased. “All the noble people speak to me,” he said, “but Mencius alone will not. He slighted me.” Hearing this, Mencius said, “The rites forbid people at court to cross ranks to speak with one another or exchange greetings across the steps. I was following ritual propriety. Is it not strange that Ziao took this for contempt?”

8.28 Mencius said, “What sets a noble person apart is what he keeps in his heart: humaneness and ritual propriety. The humane love others; those with ritual propriety respect others. People generally love those who love them and respect those who respect them. If someone treats a noble person with hostility, he examines himself: ‘Perhaps I have lacked humaneness or ritual propriety. Why else would this happen?’ He finds he has been humane and respectful, but the hostility continues. He examines himself again: ‘Perhaps I have lacked loyalty.’ He finds he has been loyal, but the hostility continues. Then he says, ‘This man is simply deluded. What distinguishes him from a beast? Why be troubled by a beast?’ Thus the noble person has a lifelong concern but no passing worry. Here is his concern: Shun was a man and I am a man; Shun became a model for the world and for ages to come, but I am still no more than a common villager. That is cause for concern. What shall he do about it? Become like Shun. As for passing worries, the noble person has none. He does nothing that lacks humaneness, travels nowhere without ritual propriety. If some sudden trouble arises, he does not fret over it.”

8.29 Yu and Hou Ji lived in an orderly age and passed their homes three times without entering; Confucius praised them. Yan Yuan lived in a disorderly age in a poor lane, with one basket of rice and one gourd of water. Others could not have borne his privation, but Yan Yuan never lost his joy; Confucius praised him too. Mencius said, “Yu, Hou Ji, and Yan Yuan followed the same Way. Yu thought that if anyone in the world drowned, it was as though he himself had drowned that person; Hou Ji thought that if anyone went hungry, it was as though he himself had starved that person. Hence their urgency. If Yu, Hou Ji, and Yan Yuan exchanged places, each would act as the others did. If someone in your own household fights, you may rush to part them even with your hair loose and cap tied on hastily. If neighbors fight, to rush out with loose hair and hastily tied cap would be foolish; you might rightly shut your door.”

8.30 Gongduzi asked, “Everyone in the state calls Kuang Zhang unfilial. Yet you associate with him and treat him with courtesy. Why?”Mencius said, “The world recognizes five ways of being unfilial: letting one's limbs grow idle and neglecting one's parents' support; gambling and drinking while neglecting their support; loving wealth and putting one's wife and children first while neglecting them; indulging one's senses and bringing disgrace on them; and loving bravado and violent quarrels that endanger them. Has Kuang Zhang done any of these? Zhang and his father reproached each other for failing to do good and became estranged. Urging another to goodness belongs between friends; when father and son make such demands, it gravely wounds their love. Do you think Zhang did not wish to have wife, children, and mother beside him? But because he had offended his father, he dared not remain close to them. He sent away his wife and children and will not accept their care for the rest of his life. He believes that to do otherwise would make his offense still greater. That is all there is to Zhang.”

8.31 Zengzi lived in Wucheng when raiders from Yue came. Someone said, “The raiders are coming. Why not leave?” Zengzi said, “Let no one stay in my house and damage its trees and timber.” When the raiders withdrew, he said, “Repair my walls and roof; I shall return.” When they had gone, he returned. His attendants said, “The people treated you with such loyalty and respect. Yet when the raiders came, you were the first to leave, setting an example for the people, and when they withdrew, you returned. Surely that was wrong.” Shenyou Xing said, “You do not understand. Once when calamity struck my family at Fuchu, seventy followers accompanied the Master, and not one took part in it.”Zisi lived in Wei when raiders came from Qi. Someone said, “The raiders are coming. Why not leave?” Zisi said, “If I, Ji, leave, who will defend the ruler with him?”Mencius said, “Zengzi and Zisi followed the same Way. Zengzi was a teacher, like a father or elder brother; Zisi was a minister, of lower rank. Had they exchanged places, each would have acted as the other did.”

8.32 Master Chu said, “The king sent someone to watch you, Master. Are you truly different from other people?”Mencius replied, “How should I differ from others? Yao and Shun were the same as everyone else.”

8.33 A man of Qi lived with a wife and a concubine. Whenever he went out he returned full of wine and meat. When his wife asked with whom he had dined, he said it was always rich and honored men. She told the concubine, “Whenever our husband goes out he returns full of wine and meat and says he dines with the rich and honored, but no distinguished visitor has ever come here. I shall follow him and see where he goes.” She rose early and trailed him at a distance. All through the city no one stopped to speak to him. At last, outside the eastern walls, he went among the graves and begged leftovers from those offering sacrifices. Still unsatisfied, he looked around for others. That was how he ate his fill. His wife returned and told the concubine, “A husband is the man on whom we depend and look for support all our lives—and this is what ours does!” She and the concubine reviled him and wept together in the courtyard. Knowing nothing of this, the husband came swaggering home from outside and behaved proudly before them. As a noble person sees it, there are few who pursue wealth, honor, and advancement whose wives and concubines would not be ashamed of them and weep together.

8.1 Mencius said, “Shun was born in Zhufeng, moved to Fuxia, and died at Mingtiao. He was a man of the eastern border. King Wen was born in Qizhou and died in Biying. He was a man of the western border. They lived more than a thousand li apart and more than a thousand years apart. But when they could put their plans into effect in the central states, their work matched as closely as two halves of a tally. Earlier and later sages followed one standard.”

8.2 Zichan governed Zheng and used his own carriage to ferry people across the Zhen and Wei rivers. Mencius said, “That was kind, but he did not understand government. If he had built footbridges in the eleventh month and bridges for carriages in the twelfth, people would not have had trouble crossing. A noble person puts government in order and may then even clear people from the road when he travels. How could he ferry every person across? A ruler who tries to please everyone individually will not have enough hours in the day.”

8.3 Mencius told King Xuan of Qi, “If a ruler treats his ministers as his hands and feet, they will treat him as their heart and belly. If he treats them as dogs and horses, they will treat him like any other person. If he treats them like dirt and weeds, they will treat him as an enemy.”The king asked, “Proper conduct requires mourning a former ruler. What must he do to deserve mourning?”Mencius replied, “He listens to his ministers' advice and acts on it, and his kindness reaches the people. If a minister must leave, he sends someone to accompany him to the border and informs the ruler of the place where he is going. Only after the man has been gone three years without returning does he take back his land and home. These are three forms of proper treatment. If a ruler does all this, his former minister mourns him. But now a minister's advice is ignored, his words go unheard, and the people receive no kindness. If he needs to leave, his ruler has him seized, makes trouble for him in the state where he goes, and takes his land and home on the very day he leaves. That is how an enemy behaves. Why mourn an enemy?”

8.4 Mencius said, “If a ruler kills a man of service who is innocent, his senior officials may leave him. If he executes an ordinary person who is innocent, his men of service may move elsewhere.”

8.5 Mencius said, “If a ruler is kind, everyone will be kind. If a ruler does what is right, everyone will do what is right.”

8.6 Mencius said, “A great person does not do things that look like proper conduct but are not, or things that look right but are not.”

8.7 Mencius said, “People of sound judgment nurture those who lack it, and talented people nurture those who lack talent. That is why people are glad to have worthy fathers and older brothers. If people of sound judgment rejected those who lacked it, and the talented rejected those without talent, there would be less than an inch separating the worthy from the unworthy.”

8.8 Mencius said, “A person must be able to refuse to do some things before he can achieve other things.”

8.9 Mencius said, “If you speak of another person's faults, what will you do about the trouble it brings afterward?”

8.10 Mencius said, “Confucius never took things too far.”

8.11 Mencius said, “A great person does not insist on keeping every promise or carrying through every action, but follows what is right.”

8.12 Mencius said, “A great person does not lose the heart he had as a small child.”

8.13 Mencius said, “Caring for living parents is not enough to qualify as a great matter; only giving them a fitting burial can do so.”

8.14 Mencius said, “A noble person studies the Way deeply because he wants to understand it for himself. When he reaches that understanding, he feels secure in it. When he feels secure, he draws on it deeply. When he draws on it deeply, he finds its source wherever he turns. That is why he wants to understand it for himself.”

8.15 Mencius said, “We study widely and explain things in detail so that we can return to explaining what is essential in simple terms.”

8.16 Mencius said, “No one has ever won people's willing obedience by using his own goodness to dominate them. Care for them with goodness, and only then can you win the world's willing obedience. No one has ever ruled as a true king without the world obeying from the heart.”

8.17 Mencius said, “Words with no substance are not worth discussing. Their real harm is that they keep worthy people out of sight.”

8.18 Xu Zi said, “Confucius often praised water, saying, ‘Water! Water!’ What did he value in it?”Mencius replied, “A spring flows steadily day and night. It fills each hollow before flowing on, until it reaches the four seas. That is what something with a source does, and that is what Confucius valued. But if water has no source and comes only from rain gathered in the seventh or eighth month, ditches and drains may fill, yet you can stand and wait for them to dry out. A noble person is ashamed when his reputation exceeds the truth.”

8.19 Mencius said, “There is only a little that sets humans apart from animals. Ordinary people abandon it, while noble people keep it. Shun understood the many kinds of things and saw clearly into human relationships. His actions came from kindness and rightness; he did not force himself to practice kindness and rightness.”

8.20 Mencius said, “Yu disliked strong wine and loved good advice. Tang kept to the middle way and appointed worthy people regardless of their origins. King Wen looked on the people as though they were injured and sought the Way as though he had not yet seen it. King Wu did not neglect those nearby or forget those far away. The Duke of Zhou considered how to bring together the work of these three kings and carry out these four practices. Whenever he saw a difficulty, he looked up and thought, continuing through the night. If he found an answer, he sat waiting for dawn.”

8.21 Mencius said, “When the traces of true kings disappeared, the Book of Songs came to an end. After the Songs came to an end, the Spring and Autumn Annals appeared. Jin's Record of Chariots, Chu's Taowu, and Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals are the same kind of work. They deal with events in the days of Duke Huan of Qi and Duke Wen of Jin, written down by historians. Confucius said, ‘I took it on myself to supply the moral judgments.’”

8.22 Mencius said, “The influence of a noble person ends after five generations, and the influence of an ordinary person does too. I could not be a disciple of Confucius, but I have learned privately from people who passed on his teaching.”

8.23 Mencius said, “When you could take something but could also leave it, taking it may hurt your honesty. When you could give something but could also keep it, giving it may hurt your generosity. When you could die but could also live, dying may hurt your courage.”

8.24 Pang Meng learned archery from Yi. After mastering everything Yi knew, he decided Yi was the only archer in the world better than he was, so he killed him. Mencius said, “Yi bore some blame too.”Gongming Yi asked, “Surely Yi was innocent?”“I said only that his blame was small. How could he be wholly innocent? The people of Zheng sent Zizhuo Ruzi to invade Wei, and Wei sent Yugong Zhisi after him. Zizhuo said, ‘My illness has returned today, and I cannot hold my bow. I am going to die!’ He asked his driver, ‘Who is pursuing us?’ The driver said, ‘Yugong Zhisi.’ Zizhuo said, ‘Then I will live.’ His driver asked, ‘Yugong Zhisi is a fine archer of Wei. Why do you say you will live?’ Zizhuo said, ‘Yugong learned archery from Yin Gong Zhi Ta, and Yin learned it from me. Yin is an honest man, and anyone he chooses to teach must be honest too.’ Yugong arrived and asked, ‘Why are you not holding your bow?’ Zizhuo said, ‘My illness has returned and I cannot hold it.’ Yugong said, ‘I learned archery from Yin Gong Zhi Ta, who learned from you. I cannot bear to use your own skill to harm you. But I am carrying out my ruler's orders today and cannot simply abandon them.’ He drew out arrows, struck them on a carriage wheel to remove their metal heads, shot four arrows, and then returned.”

8.25 Mencius said, “If beautiful Xi Shi were covered in filth, everyone would hold their nose while passing her. But even an unattractive person, after fasting and washing, can make offerings to the Lord on High.”

8.26 Mencius said, “When people discuss human nature, they should talk about what happens as a matter of course. Such regular patterns follow what is natural and easy. What I dislike about cleverness is its tendency to force things. If clever people acted as Yu did when directing the floodwaters, there would be nothing to dislike about their cleverness. Yu directed water by letting it follow its natural course. If clever people likewise let things follow their course, their cleverness would be great. The sky is high and the stars are far away, but if you investigate their regular movements, you can sit and calculate the winter solstice a thousand years ahead.”

8.27 Gongxing Zi lost a son, and the minister of the right came to offer condolences. When he entered, some people came up and spoke to him, and others went to where he was standing and spoke to him there. Mencius did not speak to the minister. The minister was displeased and said, “All the other gentlemen have spoken with me, Wang Huan, but Mencius alone has not. He looks down on me.” Hearing this, Mencius said, “Proper conduct says that at court we should not cross other people's places to speak, or go beyond the steps assigned to us to exchange greetings. I was trying to act properly. Isn't it odd that Zi Ao thinks I was slighting him?”

8.28 Mencius said, “What makes a noble person different from others is what he keeps in his heart. He keeps kindness and proper conduct there. A kind person cares for others; a person who acts properly respects others. Those who care for others are usually cared for in return; those who respect others are usually respected in return. Suppose someone treats a noble person rudely and against all reason. The noble person examines himself: ‘I must have failed in kindness or proper conduct. Why else would this happen?’ Suppose he examines himself and finds that he has been kind and respectful, but the other person is still rude. He examines himself again: ‘I must not have been sincere.’ Suppose he finds that he has been sincere and the person remains rude. He says, ‘This person is simply unreasonable. How is someone like that different from an animal? Why should I be troubled by an animal?’ So a noble person has lifelong concerns but not a day's anxious fear. Here is his concern: ‘Shun was a person, and I am a person. Shun became a model for the world, to be followed by later ages, yet I am still no more than an ordinary villager.’ That is worth worrying about. What can he do? Become like Shun. As for the things that might cause a noble person immediate fear, there are none: he does nothing unkind and acts in no way that violates proper conduct. If a day's trouble comes, it does not make him afraid.”

8.29 Yu and Hou Ji lived when the world was at peace, yet Yu passed his door three times without going in. Confucius admired this. Yan Yuan lived in troubled times in a poor alley. With one basket of food and one gourd of drink, he kept his joy when others could not bear such hardship. Confucius admired him too. Mencius said, “Yu, Hou Ji, and Yan Yuan followed the same Way. Yu thought that if someone in the world drowned, it was as though he had drowned the person himself. Hou Ji thought that if someone was hungry, it was as though he had caused the hunger. That is why they worked so urgently. If the three of them had changed places, each would have acted as the others did. If people in your own house were fighting, it would be right to run to stop them even with your hair loose and your cap tied on in haste. But if neighbors in your village were fighting, running out like that would be foolish. You could even shut your door.”

8.30 Gongduzi said, “Everyone in the state calls Kuang Zhang disrespectful to his parents. Why do you spend time with him and treat him with respect?”Mencius said, “People generally speak of five ways of failing one's parents: being too lazy to work and support them; gambling and drinking instead of supporting them; loving wealth, wife, and children while neglecting them; indulging desires and bringing shame on them; and loving violence and fighting, putting them in danger. Has Kuang Zhang done any of these? He and his father tried to correct each other's behavior and could no longer get along. Friends can demand good conduct from each other; between father and son it gravely damages affection. Do you think Zhang did not want to live with his wife and children and be with his mother? Because he had offended his father, he could not come near him. He sent away his wife and kept his son apart, and did not let them support him for the rest of his life. He thought that not doing so would make his offense worse. That is the whole story of Zhang.”

8.31 Zengzi was living in Wucheng when raiders from Yue approached. Someone said, “The raiders are coming. Why don't you leave?” Zengzi said, “Do not let people stay in my rooms and damage my firewood.” When the raiders retreated, he said, “Repair my walls and roof. I am returning.” Zengzi returned after they left. People around him said, “The people here treated him faithfully and respectfully. Yet when raiders came, he was the first to leave, setting an example for the people, and he returned only after they withdrew. Perhaps he was wrong.” Shenyou Xing said, “You do not understand. Once, when Shenyou's family suffered from the Fu Chu raiders, seventy of the Master's followers stayed out of the trouble.”Zisi was living in Wei when raiders from Qi came. Someone asked, “The raiders are coming. Why don't you leave?” Zisi answered, “If I, Ji, leave, who will stay to guard the city with the ruler?”Mencius said, “Zengzi and Zisi followed the same Way. Zengzi was a teacher, like a father or elder brother. Zisi was a minister, of lower standing. If they had exchanged places, each would have acted as the other did.”

8.32 Chu Zi asked, “Has the king sent someone to watch you because you are really different from other people?”Mencius replied, “How am I different from anyone else? Yao and Shun were like other people too.”

8.33 A man of Qi lived with a wife and a concubine. Whenever he went out, he came home full of wine and meat. When his wife asked whom he had dined with, he said it was always rich and powerful people. She told the concubine, “He always returns full of wine and meat and says he eats with the rich and powerful, but not one of them has ever visited us. I will find out where he goes.” She got up early and secretly followed him. He wandered through the town without a single person stopping to speak to him. At last he went to the graves east of the city, begged leftovers from people making offerings, and when that was not enough, looked for others. That was how he filled himself up. His wife returned and told the concubine, “A husband is someone we expect to rely on for life, but look at ours!” They spoke bitterly about him and wept together in the courtyard. The husband knew nothing of this. He came in from outside looking pleased with himself and acted arrogantly before his wife and concubine. From a noble person's point of view, very few people who pursue wealth, rank, profit, and advancement do so in ways that would not make their wives and concubines ashamed and bring them to tears.”