Once upon a time, Mi Zixia won the favour of the ruler of Wei. According to local law, the punishment for clandestinely riding in the ruler's chariot was cutting off the culprit's feet.

When Mi Zixia's mother fell ill someone who learnt about this informed the son in turn. It was already night, and Mi Zixia went out riding in the ruler's chariot in defiance of the law. Yet when the ruler heard about this, he praised him with the words: "What filial piety! For the sake of his mother he completely forgot that he committed a crime punishable by cutting off the feet!"

Another time, Mi Zixia was roaming the orchard together with the ruler. When he ate one peach and found it sweet he didn't finish but gave the ruler the other half to eat. And the ruler said: "How he loves me! Oblivious to the excellent taste he gave it to me to eat!"

But when Mi Zixia fell out of favour as he lost his appealing appearance, he was punished by the ruler who said: "This is because you rode in my chariot in defiance of the law and gave me the rest of a peach to eat!"

What Mi Zixia did had not changed. It was due to love turning into hate that he was praised at first yet later met punishment.

Han Feizi

There have been different interpretations of this story. In educated Chinese, "the rest of the peach" became synonymous for a man finding favour thanks to his good looks. Another attitude is concern about the law depending on the whims of one person. But what seems even more valid, given Han Feizi's relentless depiction of human psychology, is stress on the very last paragraph which sums up the whole dilemma: the reaction to one and the same action has less to do with the action itself than with the basic attitude of the observer. Emotion dictates value.