Sima Xiangru (c. 179-117 BCE)
“To think only of one’s own pleasure before sufficient benefits have been bestowed upon others; to ignore the common people and neglect the government of the nation, merely because one is greedy for a catch of pheasants and hares—this no truly benevolent ruler would do!”
- An excerpt from Sima Xiangru’s Shanglin fu included in the Records of the Grand Historian (Shi Ji, 117) by Sima Qian. Translated by Burton Watson (Columbia University Press, 1993).
