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Full Idea
Treat the aged of your own family in a manner befitting their venerable age and extend this treatment to the aged of other families. Treat your own young in a manner befitting their tender age, and extend this to the young of other families.
Gist of Idea
Extend the treatment of the old and young in your family to the rest of society
Source
Mengzi (Mencius) (The Mengzi (Mencius) [c.332 BCE], 1.A.7)
Book Ref
Mencius: 'Mencius', ed/tr. Lau,D.C. [Penguin 1970], p.56
A Reaction
This seems to me to articulate the ideal of communitarianism very nicely. Morality is not just about healthy adults in war and peace. It must include the children and the old. The values of the family are above the values of contracts and calculations.
| 23398 | Human nature is naturally compassionate and good (as a 'sprout'), but people may not be good [Mengzi (Mencius), by Norden] |
| 8235 | Should a coward who ran fifty paces from a battle laugh at another who ran a hundred? [Mengzi (Mencius)] |
| 8237 | Extend the treatment of the old and young in your family to the rest of society [Mengzi (Mencius)] |
| 8238 | Seeking peace through war is like looking for fish up a tree [Mengzi (Mencius)] |
| 8236 | Avoid the animals you are going to eat, as it is hard once you have got to know them [Mengzi (Mencius)] |
| 8240 | A true king shares his pleasure with the people [Mengzi (Mencius)] |
| 8239 | If the King likes music then there is hope for the state [Mengzi (Mencius)] |
| 8241 | Only put someone to death if the whole population believes it is deserved [Mengzi (Mencius)] |
| 23399 | Each correct feeling relies on an underlying virtue [Mengzi (Mencius)] |
| 23400 | Righteousness is extending the unthinkable, to reveal what must be done [Mengzi (Mencius)] |