"Original heart" refers to people's "heart of shame" (according to today's popular understanding, it can be understood as "heart of shame"). Losing one's original intention means losing one's sense of integrity, and one will become immoral and disregard propriety, justice, and integrity.

The article "The Fish I Want" uses the metaphor of facing the choice between fish and bear's paw as a metaphor for facing the choice between life and righteousness. Mencius would resolutely "sacrifice life for righteousness" . The "righteousness" in this and the "original heart" at the end of the article "this is called losing one's original intention" both refer to people's "heart of shame".

Because only when people have a "heart of shame" can they distinguish things that are bearable by the moral bottom line, things that are not acceptable within the scope of morality, and things that "want more than life" , Only in this way can we not be seduced by the "beauty of the palace", "the support of wives and concubines" and "the poor people I know can get me", but like those who "do not eat the food they complain about", have an awe-inspiring "righteousness" in their hearts.

Extended information:

The central idea of ??"Fish I Want":

Selected from "Mencius Gaozi 1". Mencius advocated that human nature is good. He believed that people are born with a heart of compassion, a heart of shame, a heart of resignation, and a heart of right and wrong. As long as these "good intentions" are not lost, one will possess "benevolence, righteousness and reason" in terms of morality.

This article starts from this theory, clarifies the truth that justice is more important than life, justice is more important than profit, and injustice is shameful, and puts forward the idea of ??sacrificing life for justice. Mencius believed that if you value life more than justice, you will do unjust things. He praised those who valued justice over life and sacrificed their lives for justice, and reprimanded those who lived in an ignoble way and ignored justice for the sake of profit. Warn people to distinguish between righteousness and benefit.