“Man's nature is naturally good just as water flows naturally downwards.”Mencius · Mencius · -300 · cartea 6, paragraful 2
Wickedness is water pushed off course, not water flowing differently: force bends it, nature returns it to good.
Mencius argues, against thinkers who saw humans as neutral or bad by nature, that compassion is not a cultural acquisition but an inborn inclination. The analogy works through the idea of a natural course: water can be pushed uphill or diverted, yet it always resumes its descent when left free. Likewise, cruelty is an external force — fear, hunger, corrupt upbringing — not the essence. A child who runs to help another child who has fallen, before any lesson in morality, is his favorite example.
Why it matters It changes how you judge people: if cruelty is a deviation rather than an essence, then good conditions and education genuinely matter. It also helps you trust children's prosocial instincts instead of imposing morality on them as something foreign.