We usually use the phrase "get more help from the Tao, get less help from the Tao" to explain that people who are in line with justice can get support and help from many sides, and those who violate justice will fall into isolation and helplessness. Here, we understand "Tao" as "righteousness". So, what is justice? Modern Chinese Dictionary says: "Justice" means "just truth that is beneficial to the people". This is a modern understanding, but it comes down in one continuous line with its original meaning.

Mencius put forward the idea of "protecting the people". Protecting people means caring for and protecting people. It requires the monarch to "gather what he wants with them without doing evil", that is, to accumulate what the people want for them without imposing what the people hate on them. What do people want? A rich and happy life, of course. Mencius believes that this is the fundamental focus of benevolent governance. Having done this, no force can stop the submission of the people's hearts and the whole world.