Just noticed this forum at Beijing Review, discussing the case of Yu Bin, former vice mayor of a small city in Hunan province, who took bribes to fund projects for the poor.  He was recently found guilty of corruption, given three years in jail (it is not clear if that part of the sentence was suspended) and hefty fines.  Beijing Review published short reactions by several people, some saying Yu was treated too harshly, others saying the full force of the law had to be applied.  The title of the piece is "Does Virtue Justify Corruption?"  Confucius and Mencius would, I believe, answer, yes.

     A Confucian orientation is less concerned about the consistency of legal precedent (that is more a Legalist worry) and more interested in consistent Humanity.  If a law has to be broken in order to accomplish a humane goal – and I am assuming here that vice mayor Yu really was taking from the rich, via bribes, and giving to the poor – then there must be something wrong with the law.  In this case, the obvious problem is the larger, crushing problem of corruption that plagues all of China and contributes to the growing economic inequality and injustice there.  Yu may well be a good man surrounded by a bad system.  So, why should he be punished?

    Here’s Mencius speaking to a ruler who is more interested in fighting wars than providing for his people:

There’s plenty of juicy meat in your kitchen and plenty of well-fed horses in your stable… but the people here look hungry, and in the countryside they’re starving to death.  You’re feeding humans to animals.  Everyone hates to see animals eat each other, and an emperor is the people’s father and mother – but if his government feeds humans to animals, how can he claim to be the people’s father and mother? (7)

So, if Yu was pushing against a system that was "feeding humans to animals" (or, maybe more accurately, feeding humans to high-flying, cell-phone-toting urban upper middle class professionals), shouldn’t his virtue counterbalance his illegality?

    I imagine the perfect Mencian outcome would be to find him technically guilty of breaking the law, and then fine him one yuan.