Mencius - Book 7, Part 1, Chapter 35

T'âo Ying asked, saying, 'Shun being sovereign, and Kâo-yâo chief minister of justice, if Kû-sâu had murdered a man, what would have been done in the case?'

Mencius said, 'Kâo-yâo would simply have apprehended him.'

'But would not Shun have forbidden such a thing?'

'Indeed, how could Shun have forbidden it? Kâo-yâo had received the law from a proper source.'

'In that case what would Shun have done?'

'Shun would have regarded abandoning the kingdom as throwing away a worn-out sandal. He would privately have taken his father on his back, and retired into concealment, living some where along the sea-coast. There he would have been all his life, cheerful and happy, forgetting the kingdom.'

~ James Legge translation via nothingistic.org ~

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