In the late Western Han Dynasty, a man named Zhuo Mao served as a clerk in Chancellor Kong Guang's mansion. Because of his mastery of Confucian texts and historical allusions, he was called a "universal scholar."
Zhuo Mao was gentle and benevolent, humble and loving, never having disputes with anyone. Once, while riding out in his carriage, someone stopped him on the road, pointed at the horse pulling the cart, and said:
“This is my lost horse!” Zhuo Mao smiled and asked, “When did you lose your horse?” “A month ago.”
Zhuo Mao thought, 'I've used this horse for years, how could it be his?' But he said nothing, handed over the horse, and pulled the cart back himself. After a few steps, he turned and said, 'If you later find this horse isn't yours, please return it to the chancellor's residence.'
A few days later, the man found his lost horse and returned Zhuo Mao's horse, saying, "I'm truly sorry, I made a mistake." "It's alright," Zhuo Mao replied kindly.
When Zhuo Mao later became a county magistrate, he governed with fairness and loved the people as his own children. One day, someone came to accuse Zhuo Mao, claiming that a local constable had accepted his rice and meat as a bribe.
Zhuo Mao asked, "Did he demand it from you?" The man replied, "No." Zhuo Mao pressed, "Did you ask him to handle some matter, and he accepted it as payment?" The man answered, "No, that's not it either." Zhuo Mao inquired, puzzled, "Then what exactly happened?" The man said, "I gave it to him as a gift." Zhuo Mao asked, confused, "Since you willingly gave it, why are you now accusing him?" The man responded, "But the law forbids officials from accepting gifts from the people, doesn't it?"
Zhuo Mao said, "What makes humans nobler than animals is their benevolence and mutual respect. People are bound together by principles, ethics, rites, and righteousness. The law prohibits bribery and corruption, but your gift of rice and meat to the village chief was a matter of etiquette, and etiquette is in accordance with human sentiment."
Later, the idiom "Li Shun Ren Qing" came to mean that rites, as social moral and behavioral standards, are in accordance with human feelings.
Source: *Book of the Later Han*, "Biography of Zhuo Mao"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "礼顺人情" came to describe how rites, as social moral and behavioral standards, are in accordance with human feelings.