Moral Courage
Yi requires the courage to do right despite difficulty.
Knowing what is right is not enough; one must have the courage to act on it. Yi includes the strength of character to stand for principle even when costly or unpopular.
Seeing what is right and not doing it is lack of courage.
Moral knowledge must translate to moral action.
Analects
Written about in
- What Confucianism says about what to say and what to leave unsaid
Analects 2.24: seeing what is right and not doing it is lack of courage. That closes the escape route where you privately agree with the objection and say nothing.