So this is an ancient Chinese story from some time in the Zhou Dynasty which was over 2,000 years ago and lasted from the 8th century B.C.E. till the 3rd century B.C.E . I will give you the translation provided by Paul Rozer in the book A New Practical Primer of Literary Chinese. When I first read this old Chinese story, I was rather surprised needless to say.

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Mizi Xia was loved by the Lord of Wei. The law of the state of Wei was that anyone who drove the lord’s carriage unlawfully would be punished by having his feet cut off. Mizi Xia’s mother was ill; someone heard of this, and at night went to inform him. Mizi Xia drove the lord’s carriage without authorization and went out. The Lord heard of this and thought him worthy. He said, “How filial! For the sake/reason of his mother, he committed a crime worthy of having his feet cut off!” The lord was strolling in his orchard. Mizi Xia ate a peach and found it sweet, so he didn’t finish it and offered [the rest] to the Lord. The Lord said, “He loves me and disregards it with taste!” When Mizi Xia’s look faded and [the Lord’s] love slackened, he offended the Lord. The Lord said, “This man indeed once usurped the use of my carriage, and moreover he once fed me with the remains of a peach!” Therefore, though Mizi Xia’s conduct did not necessarily change from before, the reason why he was first considered worthy and afterward offended was because of the change that arose from love to hate.

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This to me is really interesting, before this I had only known of a few emperors who would have affairs with eunuchs among the ancient Chinese. In modern China, homosexuality or bisexuality would not be so accepted. As I did my research, I realized that many rulers were bisexual and often had affairs with both women and men. Often the scholars would not say that homosexuality was wrong in ancient China, but the king’s or ruler’s over grown sexual desire. This Chinese story does show us something else as well; sometimes doing the right thing can be difficult because sometimes, in even today’s world (perhaps more so) it still seems if you do the right thing, you will be shunned for it or punished unfairly. If one really looks at these ancient Chinese stories of any time, they can see in those classical times many interesting arguments which are still seen to this day.