I admire Confucius because he emphasizes virtuous humanity. I like his practical wisdom. Zi Gong (Confucius's disciple) asked: “Can you summarize with one word how we should live in our whole life? Confucius said: “Isn't it empathy? Do not impose on others what you do not wish for yourself" (Analects 15:24). This kind of similar teaching is also found in Hillel's episode in Talmud (Shabbat 31a): "What is hateful to you do not do to others; all the rest is commentary, and go and learn it." Jesus also says a similar thing: “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets" (Matt 7:12).
But today, I want to visit Mencius, a great interpreter of Confucius, who says that "the mind of shame and hate is important." A virtuous, righteous human must know what shame is and what hate is. Simply speaking, when one does a bad thing, one must feel shame. At the same time, when one sees evil acts from others, one must condemn those things. Feeling shame is an important virtue as much as one judges others. We need to recover a mind of shame in our work, our decision-making, and in all our lives. Often, we are clear as mud when we deal with ourselves. We need self-inspection and must be adamantine in our dislike of heinous acts. The following calligraphy represents the above words of Mencius.
