Mencius (thinker, statesman, educator, representative of the Si-Meng school of Confucianism during the Warring States period)

Mencius (c. 372-289 BC) Introduction to Mencius, a thinker, statesman, and educator during the Warring States period, and a representative of the Si-Meng school of Confucianism; his name was Ke (轲), and his character ZiYi (子舆), and he was a native of Zou, a state of Lu, in the southeast of present-day Zou County, Shandong Province. He is regarded as the successor of Confucius, and is known as the "Sage of Asia".

According to legend, Mencius was a descendant of the Mengsun clan, a nobleman of the state of Lu, who lost his father at an early age and came from a poor family, and was a student of Zisi. After completing his studies, he lobbied the lords as a scholar in an attempt to promote his own political ideas, and traveled to Liang (Wei), Qi, Song, and Teng, and was honored by King Xuan of Qi as a guest secretary, but never saw the use of it. In his later years, he retired from lecturing, and together with his students, he "preached the Poetry and the Book, described the ideas of Zhongni, and composed seven articles of the Mencius". He stood on the position of Confucianism inherited and developed the ideas of Confucius, and put forward a complete set of thought system, which had a great influence on the later generations.

The highest category of Mencius' philosophical thought is heaven. He inherited Confucius' idea of heavenly destiny, eliminated the residual meaning of personality god in it, and imagined heaven as a spiritual entity with moral attributes. He said, "Sincerity is the way of heaven." Mencius stipulated the moral concept of sincerity as the essential attribute of heaven, considering heaven as the origin of the moral concept inherent in human nature. Whatever is beyond the reach of human power, Mencius attributes to the role of heaven. Thus, he advocated "being happy with heaven, fearing heaven, and serving heaven" and accepting heaven's arrangement in a submissive manner. His philosophical thinking was characterized by objective idealism.

Mencius believed that heaven and human beings are interconnected, and that heaven is the master of all things, and that everything about human beings, be it political systems, moral principles, social and historical development, or individual poverty and prosperity, is determined by heaven. Man, not only the goodness comes from the gift, but also the thinking function of the human heart is given by heaven. This idea of the unity of heaven and man is centrally embodied in the following three philosophical propositions: "He who has done his heart's work knows his nature. If you know your nature, you know heaven"; "Everything is ready for me. If you turn around and are sincere, there is no greater joy"; "Therefore, sincerity is the way of heaven; thinking about sincerity is the way of man."

Mengzi's political thought is based on "people-oriented", "benevolent government" and "the way of the king". He developed Confucius's idea of moral governance into the doctrine of benevolent government, which became the core of his political thought. He modeled the hierarchy from the Son of Heaven to the common people on the Zhou system, and at the same time he compared the relationship between the ruler and the ruled to that of a parent to a child. According to Mencius, only when this state of affairs is achieved is politics at its best. If the ruler practiced benevolent government, he could win the heartfelt support of the people; if he disregarded the people's life and death and promoted -, he would lose the people's heart and be overthrown by the people. Based on the experience of the Warring States period, Mencius also summarized the law of the rise and fall of various countries, and put forward a proposition rich in the essence of democracy: "The people are the most important thing, the gods of earth and grain come second, and the ruler is the least important thing". The so-called "the people are the most important" means that the people are the foundation of the country, and how to treat the people Introduction of Mencius is of great significance to the rise and fall of the country. He believed that when a ruler practiced benevolent government, he could gain the heartfelt support of the people of the world, who would run to him in droves. If there is a war, the people will rise up to resist, and even the armies of powerful countries will not want to attack such a ruler who is as kind as a parent. In this way one can be invincible in the world.

Mencius also pointed out that, "The benevolent government must begin with the Jingjie". "Jingjie" means dividing and organizing the field boundaries and implementing the well-field system. The well-field system he envisioned here was a feudal, natural economy, based on the small, one-family peasantry, with a form of exploitation in the form of servitude and rent. In this way, each family was allocated 100 mu of arable land and 5 mu of homestead, planted mulberry trees, raised domestic animals, and was self-sufficient in food and clothing. He said: "The people are the way, those who have constant property have constant mind, those who do not have constant property do not have constant mind", as long as the people have "constant property", fixed on the land, live and work in peace and contentment, so they will not violate the criminal law, and the society will also be stabilized. At the same time, Mencius believed that, after the people's livelihood has been secured, and then build schools, with filial piety and fraternal duty reasoning for indoctrination, to guide people to goodness, we can create a "kissing", "long long" good social culture, to realize the "everyone kisses their relatives, long their long". The world will be peaceful if everyone can kiss their parents and grow their children.

Mengzi's ethical thinking and politics are tightly integrated, pointing out that moral cultivation is the root of good politics. He said, "The foundation of the world is in the state, the foundation of the state is at home, and the foundation of the family is in the body." Mencius believed that both the ruler and the ruled should emphasize moral cultivation. He summarized moral norms into four, namely, benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom. At the same time, he summarized human relationships into five, namely, "Father and son have kinship, ruler and minister have righteousness, husband and wife have distinction, elder and younger are in order, and friends have trust." He believed that among the four, benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom, benevolence and righteousness are the most important. Benevolence and righteousness are based on filial piety and fraternal duty, which are the basic ethical norms for dealing with the blood relationship between father and son and brothers. He said, "The way of Yao and Shun is only filial piety and fraternal duty." He believed that if every member of society could use benevolence and righteousness to deal with all kinds of human relations, the stability of the feudal order and the unity of the world would be guaranteed.

Mencius also put forward the idea that human nature is inherently good. He believed that despite the differences in the division of labor and class differences among the members of various societies, their human nature was the same. He believed that the morality of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom is natural, inherent in the human heart, and is the "conscience and conscience" of human beings.

Mencius advocated the goodness of nature, and believed that all people have "good ends", i.e., the heart of compassion, the heart of shame and evil, the heart of resignation, and the heart of right and wrong, which he called the "Four Ends"; some people are able to expand it and strengthen the moral cultivation, while others give up and are trapped by circumstances, which results in the "four ends". Some people are able to expand it and strengthen their moral cultivation, while others give up on themselves and are trapped by their environment, which creates a difference between the high and low character of a person. Mengzi's requirements for the scholarly class are strict, believing that no matter how bad the environment is, one should still strive for improvement, and use the bad environment as a means of honing oneself. He believed that no matter how bad the environment was, he should strive for improvement and use the harsh environment as a means of honing himself. If one encounters a severe test, one should "give up one's life for righteousness" and sacrifice one's life rather than give up one's moral principles. According to Mencius, through long-term moral practice, one can cultivate a firm and fearless state of mind, which is called "the spirit of greatness". This "great and strong" qi is capable of expanding actively and filling up heaven and earth.

Because of Mencius's thought and doctrine of Confucius as a banner, but also quite profound, comprehensive inheritance and development of the thinking of Confucius, so the later feudal rulers and Confucian scholars honored as second only to Confucius "saint".

The words and deeds of Mencius were written by him and his disciples, Wan Zhang and Gongsun Chou, into the book "Mencius". The book ****7, 261 chapters, about 35,000 words. The book focuses on Mengzi's travels to the lords of various countries and the answers and arguments about academic issues, reflecting Mengzi's political, philosophical, and ethical thoughts, especially the educational activities and ideas of Mengzi, including the role and purpose of education, the content and methods of moral education, and the methods of teaching and learning. Zhu Xi of the Southern Song Dynasty listed Mencius alongside the Analects, the University, and the Meanwhile, collectively known as the "Four Books", which became an important teaching material in feudal society and had a wide and far-reaching influence.