Your Majesty perhaps will now also say, 'All I am concerned with are the benevolent and the right. By contrast there has never been a benevolent person who neglected his parents or a righteous person who put his lord last. But when benefit is put before what is right, they are not satisfied without snatching it all. Those with a thousand out of ten thousand, or a hundred out of a thousand, had quite a bit. When the head of a state of ten thousand chariots is murdered, the assassin is invariably a noble with a fief of a thousand chariots, When the head of a fief of a thousand chariots is murdered, the assassin is invariably head of a subfief of a hundred chariots. If your Majesty says, 'How can I benefit my state?' Your officials will say, 'How can I benefit my family,' and officers and common people will say, 'How can I benefit myself.' Once superiors and inferiors are competing for benefit, the state will be in danger. The king said, "Sir, you did not consider a thousand li too far to come, You must have some ideas about how to benefit my state." Mencius replied, "Why must Your Majesty use the word 'benefit'' All I am concerned with are the benevolent and the right. Mencius had an audience with King Hui of Liang. Below are excerpts of the completely correct view by Mencius: Machiavelli's observation of human nature and government are not correct and often contradicts the wisdom of the dharma and sages.
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