Who would Mengzi's idea of "knowing the nature of the heart", in the history of the development of Confucianism's thought on the nature of the heart

Doing his best to know the nature of the heart to know the sky - from Mencius' theory of the nature of the heart to see its inner transcendent characteristics of the Chinese people for the nature of the heart of the thought did not begin with Mencius, such as GuoDian Chu Tomb Confucian Jane in the "sex from the life out of the" chapter, the University of the "three syllabi and eight items", the ShangShu "Heaven sees what the people see, and heaven hears what the people hear", and Confucius's "Sexuality is close, and habits are far apart"; the inherent transcendent characteristics of traditional Chinese thought and culture were also revealed before Mencius, such as Confucius's "I want to be benevolent, but I am benevolent to the end! The inherent transcendental character of traditional Chinese thought and culture had also been revealed before Mencius, such as Confucius' "I want to be benevolent, but I am benevolent", "to be benevolent by oneself", "to be benevolent by oneself", and so on. The inherent transcendence of traditional Chinese thought is mainly reflected in the exploration of the theory of the nature of the heart, whether it is Confucianism's theory of good and evil, or Taoism's theory of motion and stillness, or Buddhism's theory of purity, are all based on a deep understanding of the theory of the nature of the heart, "Confucianism teaches to be poor in reason and exhaustion of the nature of the Shakya religion teaches to be clear and see the nature of the heart, and Taoism teaches to cultivate the true nature and refinement of the nature of the heart."[2]. It is only at that time on the Chinese culture far-reaching influence of Confucianism has not yet formed, for the nature of the heart of the discussion is not in-depth, the real systematic and detailed study of the theory of the nature of the heart, to the Meng Zi really unfold. Mencius's ideas on mindfulness are mainly concentrated in the relevant chapters of his book, Mencius. According to Mencius, "All people have the heart of intolerance; if they have no compassion, they are not human; if they have no shame, they are not human; if they have no resignation, they are not human; if they have no sense of right and wrong, they are not human. The heart of compassion is the end of benevolence, the heart of shame is the end of righteousness, the heart of resignation is the end of propriety, and the heart of right and wrong is the end of wisdom" ("On Gongsun Chou"). "All men have the heart of intolerance," which means that all human beings are good. The above passage means that all men have the "four hearts," which are the germ of the four virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom. Those who do not have these four hearts are "not human". It can be seen that the four hearts are not only the basis and foundation for the invention of the four virtues, but also the universal root of man as a human being. Like the Four Virtues and the Four Hearts, the Four Virtues are innately inherent in the nature of every human being, which means that human nature is inherently good. To be good is not to say that everyone is born morally perfect, but to say that the possibility of goodness is inherent in one's nature from birth. "The reason why human beings are different from beasts and fowls is that the common people go to them, but the gentlemen keep them" (Li Louxia). Since the four hearts are an important criterion that distinguishes man from beasts, it is important to maintain and expand these four ends and not to lose them. All human beings have good qualities, and a sage is only a person who expands these four qualities to the extent of "the highest of human relationships", so everyone can be a sage, and everyone can be Yao and Shun. While affirming the a priori nature of moral qualities such as benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom, Mencius also internalized the Four Hearts as "nature" and further linked "nature" to "heaven" by saying. He said, "He who has fully realized his heart knows his nature. To know one's nature is to know heaven. To keep one's heart and cultivate one's nature is to serve Heaven. If one's life is young and immortal, one should cultivate one's body in order to wait for it, so as to establish one's life" (《尽心上》). This means that as long as a person acts according to his or her own moral heart, he or she will realize that his or her nature is good, or act to the best of his or her moral heart, and there will be no moral anxiety or contradiction within him or her. To realize that one's own nature is good is to know heaven, and accordingly, to cherish, preserve, and worship the good virtues one already has is to serve heaven. Then, what does the "heaven" in "knowing heaven" and "serving heaven" refer to? What is its relationship with "heart" and "nature"? In the Confucian tradition, there is a coherence between Heaven and the Mandate of Heaven, and between nature and the heart, which is mainly initiated by the "Meanwhile" and the "Zhouyi". As far as the social situation is concerned, the fate of the time has an irresistible effect on the realization of Mencius's moral ideals. Mencius said, "Cultivate oneself in order to wait for the fate of the time", which means that what one can do now is to admit the limitations and restrictions of the external reality on one's political and moral ideals on the one hand, and firmly believe that the time for the realization of one's ideals will surely come on the other hand. on the one hand, and on the other hand, one must firmly believe that the time to realize one's ideals will definitely come. Therefore, the "heaven" in "knowing heaven" can be understood as the inner nature of the subject, an a priori category that shows the good value orientation of the subject's inner nature, and it only means "naturally so". Since this is the case, whatever is within man and belongs to him, and can be grasped by him, he should make every effort to grasp it and search for it, and whatever cannot be interfered with by man's subjective factors and practical ability, he should try his best to conform to it. It can be seen that Mencius advocates working on the subject's own subjective consciousness rather than on objective aspects outside of man, and the spirit of outward-looking exploration is not prominent in Mencius. Mencius further argues that since the four logical virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom have become the natural endowment of each person's heart, the path of moral cultivation for each person should naturally be directed to the heart, i.e., "to seek the opposite of oneself." "If you love people but do not kiss them, you are against their benevolence; if you rule people but do not govern them, you are against their wisdom; if you do not answer them, you are against their respect. If one's own heart and behavior are correct, then everyone in the world will follow one's lead." (Li Lou Shang) This means that if a certain kind of moral behavior, such as respecting and loving others or treating others with courtesy, does not receive the same kind of courtesy as a response, one should look for the reason in oneself. It is because of the important role of the heart that Mencius attached great importance to its cultivation. He believed that people's evil behavior is due to forgetting or losing the "original heart", and the process of finding this lost heart is "to seek peace of mind". He said, "Although the existence of human beings, is not the heart of benevolence and righteousness? Its so put its conscience, but also like the axe catty in the wood, Dan Dan and cut down, can be beautiful? The rest of the day and night, Pingdan gas, its good and bad and people are similar to a few, then its day and night of the day, there are shackles to die, then it is not far from the beasts" ("Suo Zi on"). It can be seen that although the human heart inherently good nature, but if the usual uncultivated, it is inevitable to gradually lose and the shape of the beast, therefore, "the way of learning is nothing else, to seek reassurance is only carried out" ("Suo Zi Chapter and Verse"). Source: Journal of Guangxi Socialist Institute