Seven Castles

Mencius

                                      

June 4, 2008

 

Mencius (372-289 BC) was a great thinker, philosopher and important representative of Confucianism, arguably the most famous Confucian after Confucius himself. He was born more than one hundred years after Confucius' death but helped to develop Confucianism towards an idea of "benevolent governing". They together formed the dominant tone of Confucian culture.

 

Also known by his birth name Ke, he hailed from Zou State (now Zoucheng, Shandong Province), only thirty kilometers south of Qufu, Confucius' birthplace. Shortly after he was born, his father died, and he was subsequently brought up by his mother alone. A traditional account of her provides a rare opportunity to acknowledge the influence of a mother on a famous son. The legend said that his mother moved their house three times - from beside a cemetery to beside a marketplace, to finally beside a school - before finding a location that she felt was suitable for his upbringing. As an expression, the idiom refers to the importance of a proper environment for the proper upbringing of children.

 

Supposedly, he was a pupil of Confucius' grandson, Zisi. Like Confucius, he traveled China for forty years to offer advice to rulers for reform. He served as an official during the Warring States Period in the State of Qi. He expressed his filial devotion when he took an absence of three years from his official duties for Qi to mourn his mother's death. Disappointed at his failure to effect changes in his contemporary world, he retired from public life.

 

Subsequent Chinese philosophers, especially the Neo-Confucians of the Song dynasty, have generally considered his interpretation of Confucianism the orthodox version. The Mencius, a book of his conversations with kings of the time, is one of the Four Books that Zhu Xi grouped as the core of orthodox Neo-Confucian thought. In contrast to the sayings of Confucius that are short and self-contained, the Mencius consists of long dialogues, including arguments, with extensive prose.

 

He emphasized the significance of the common citizens in the state. While Confucianism generally regards rulers highly, he argued that it is acceptable for the subjects to overthrow or even kill a ruler who ignores the people's needs and rules harshly. This is because a ruler who does not rule justly is no longer a true ruler.

 

He is most famous for his theory of human nature, according to which all human beings share an innate goodness that either can be cultivated through education and self-discipline or squandered through neglect and negative influences, but never lost altogether. He wrote that everyone had "a feeling of sympathy", the germ of benevolence, and it could be conditioned to become virtue. He believed that the ideal society was one achieved through benevolent governing, where everyone was kind and possessed a noble morality. He paid close attention to the functioning of a system of government, rules and orders and stressed that everything should focus on the stability of the country and on the spirit of loving-kindness. The principle of benevolent governing demanded that all political activities were humane and in the interests of the people. He believed a government should enable all people to have a certain amount of property, such as land and housing and the people should not have to pay too much tax, so that they may lead a comfortable life, with enough food and clothes. The benevolent government should oppose war and killing, and teach morality to the people, so allowing them to develop.

 

His principle of benevolent governing has exerted a deep and far-reaching influence throughout China's history. The suffering lower classes saw his doctrine as their deliverance, capable politicians trie to implement it and philosophers used it to expose harsh regimes. Even today we can see those who aspire to his idea of government and succeed.

 

In his eyes, to be a gentleman is the lifelong pursuit of a man with lofty ideals. Wealth and power cannot corrupt him，poverty cannot sway his principles and threats cannot make him bend. Only such a person can be called a gentleman. There are also those who curry favor with the powerful. Therefore, he and Xunzi (another philosopher of the same era) spoke of two kinds of gentlemen: the gentlemen who are in pursuit of official careers, and those in pursuit of being upstanding men. It is considered that only the latter could be called real gentlemen. He is probably best known for the view that "human nature is good", a view of human nature on the basis of which he defended the Confucian ideal and developed an account of the self-cultivation process. However, his view was subsequently challenged by Xunzi, who defended the alternative view that "human nature is evil".

【作者: zhangliping】【访问统计:】【2008年06月4日 星期三 05:17】【注册】【打印】