Mengzi

Mencius ( circ a 372 BC-289 BC), named Ke, whose courtesy name was Ziyu, was born in the State of Zou. He was a philosopher, thinker and educator in the Warring States period. As a representative figure of the Confucian school after Confu cius and before Xunzi, he was honored as the“ Second Sage” after Confucius.

Mencius’ comments were recorded in Mencius, which was included in the Four Books together with The Analects, The Great Learning and The Doctrine of the Mean. His prose was full of vigor, emotion and logic. It was eloquent and leisurely. With visualized objects and language, it illustrated the complex truth and had a profound impact on the development of prose in later generations.

In terms of human nature, Mencius advocated the theory of original goodness of human nature and believed that humans were born with four virtues: benevolence, righteousness, courtesy and wisdom. Mencius required people to attach importance to the role of introspection, arguing that people should maintain and expand such good qualities through introspection.

In terms of values, Mencius emphasized sacrificing one’s own life for justice, stressing that one should restrict his words and deeds with rite and morality, and should not give them up for good material conditions.

In social politics, Mencius, on the one hand, strictly distinguished the class status of the ruler and the ruled, and believed that“ those who laboured with minds governed others, and those who laboured with physical strength were governed by others”; On the other hand, he compared the relationship between the ruler and the ruled to that between parents and children, and advocated that the ruler should be as concerned about the sufferings of the ruled as parents and the ruled should be close to and serve the ruler as parents. Mencius proposed a policy of benevolence, emphasizing the development of agriculture, caring for the people and paying attention to the people’s livelihood. Mencius was the first to put forward the idea of“ the people are superior to the monarch”. He believed that the monarch must attach importance to the people, conduct benevolent policies, and win the hearts of the people. If the monarch had a big mistake, his officials could admonish him. If the monarch did not listen to his admonition, he could be removed from his position.