Mencius said, "That whereby man differs from the lower animals is but small. The ordinary people cast it away, while the superior man preserves it. (1) What is cast away is the mind. That is why Mencius said that some people "cast their original mind away . (2) What is preserved is this mind. That is why Mencius said that "The great man is one who does not lose his child's heart" (3) (What Mencius referred to as) the Four Beginnings (of humanity, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom, that is, the sense of commiseration, the sense of shame, the sense of deference and compliance, and the sense of right and wrong) (4) are this mind. It is what Heaven has endowed in us. All men have this mind, and all minds are endowed with this principle. The mind is principle.

(Lu Hsiang Shan)