Mencius on Sectarian Violence

    I've been reading Mencius with my class this week.  Many of his passages jump off the page with contemporary resonance.  Here's one that gets at both the futility and self-reproducing quality of the kind of violence that we see in Iraq these days:

Mencius said: "Only now have I realized the true gravity of killing a man's family members.  If you kill his father; he'll kill your father.  If you kill his brother, he'll kill your brother.  There's precious little difference between that and killing your father or brother with your own hands. (259)

Comments

[China Law Blog]

Li'l Kim of North Korea subscribes to this; when he imprisons or kills someone, he also typically imprisons/kills all immediate family as well.