Rightness and Profit

Do you really have to choose between making money and doing what's right?

Original

Analects 4.16, 4.12君子喻於義，小人喻於利。……放於利而行，多怨。Mencius 1A·1王何必曰利？亦有仁義而已矣。……上下交征利而國危矣。Commentary on Qian (Wenyan)利者，義之和也。……利物足以和義。Great Learning, commentary 10此謂國不以利為利，以義為利也。

In plain words

The noble person understands what is right; the small person understands what pays. … Act only with profit in mind, and you will gather much resentment.

Why must Your Majesty speak of profit? There is humaneness and rightness, and that is all. … When those above and those below grab at profit from each other, the state is in danger.

Benefit is the harmony of what is right. … Benefiting all things is enough to harmonise with rightness.

This is what is meant by: a state does not count profit as its profit; it counts rightness as its profit.

Key words

義yìFitting and right: what ought to be done.
利lìGain, benefit; in the Commentary, each thing getting what fits it.
喻yùTo grasp at once; to be moved by.

Reading it step by step

Last page, ritual was a form that grows from the heart. But what tests us most in daily life is often not etiquette. It's money: raises, contracts, bonuses, deals. Are rightness and profit natural enemies?

First: Confucius says what you grasp first shows who you are. “The noble person understands what is right; the small person understands what pays.” To understand here is to get it at once, to be moved by it. Faced with the same situation, one person asks first “is this right?”, another “what's in it for me?” Confucius doesn't call money bad; he grants that wealth and rank are what everyone wants. His warning is in another line: “Act only for profit, and you'll gather much resentment.” And elsewhere: when gain is in sight, think of what is right.

Second: Mencius says if everyone asks only about profit, the state is in danger. King Hui of Liang greeted Mencius by asking what he could do to profit the kingdom. Mencius replied: “Why must Your Majesty speak of profit? There is humaneness and rightness, and that is all.” If the king asks what profits his state, his ministers will ask what profits their houses, and the common people what profits themselves. When top and bottom grab at profit from each other, the state is in danger. There's a twist. Mencius isn't saying “don't benefit.” He's saying humaneness and rightness are the largest and longest-lasting benefit of all.

Third: the Commentary and the Great Learning say profit is rightness in harmony. The Commentary on the Changes defines 利 beautifully: “Benefit is the harmony of what is right.” 义 means fitting, proper. When every person and every thing receives what fits it, and these fit together, that is real benefit. So it adds: benefiting all things is enough to harmonise with rightness.

It's close to a modern idea of fairness: set the rules before you know which seat you'll sit in, and the rules won't favour only the strong. The Great Learning lifts this to the state: “A state does not count profit as its profit; it counts rightness as its profit.” Rightness and profit are not either-or. They are a matter of order: rightness first, profit after, as fruit follows the root.

Analectsright or what pays: which comes to mind first?

Menciuswhy speak of profit? all grabbing endangers all

Commentary · Great Learningbenefit is rightness in harmony

Not either-or but an order: rightness first, profit after.

Today: a friend asks you to go into business together. In the first contract, before you talk about earnings, write down who carries what if things go wrong and how it will be split. When your company hands out bonuses, ask whether the split is fair before asking whether your share is big. Money earned this way sits easily in your pocket, and you don't earn your friend away.

Ask whether it's right first. Then ask whether it pays.

One line to carry

Ask whether it's right first. Then ask whether it pays.

Today's question

Recall a moment you hesitated over a gain. Did you ask first whether it paid, or whether it was right? Would reversing the order have changed what you did?