These three features of sageliness coincide with saintliness in Western thought. Recent ethical thinkers have drawn attention to su These three features of sageliness coincide with sainthood in Western thought. Recent ethical thinkers have drawn attention to supererogatory acts.
All choices are moral choices.
I suspect this feature of the sage ideal is what inclines me to think that it ultimately rests on a consequential or utilitarian base. The story concerns a foolish man who tries to help the rice plants grow by pulling on them. The result is to kill them and Mencius' use of the parable suggests that he thinks this is the kind of mistake that Mozi and other moral theorists make. Clearly, like Gaozi, Mencius' most famous interlocutor, Mozi thinks that human moral nature can be changed by teaching. We could extend the analogy a bit.