Mencius could often be plainly blunt, but when he had finished speaking you knew that you had been told the truth. “To feed a man without showing him love is to treat him like a pig [sometimes translated “domestic animal”]; to love him without showing him respect is to keep him like a domestic animal [sometimes translated “pet”].”20 Benevolence required more than just the offered help; one had to recognize the mutual humanity of the recipient on its deepest level—the recognition of an innate equality.
