There are generally two versions about the original intention of this sentence. The first view is that Mencius is warning young people to carry on the family line, that is, giving birth to children is a filial piety; The second view interprets "no offspring" as "no respect from future generations". After all, Confucius once said that "an old man who never dies is a thief". People think that Mencius' move is a person who criticizes evil morality and sets a bad example for future generations.
Although I personally agree with the second statement, I always feel that the connotation of Mencius' "great childlessness" will never stop there. Yan Xiaoer, an example of "marrying without passing on" originated from Mencius, thinks that Mencius is using "marrying without passing on" and "being big without heirs" to emphasize the flexibility of gentleman's action and the principle of stressing morality. Why do you say that? Please continue reading.
1, "There are three unfilial, and there is no queen". In Mencius Li Lou, the context of "three unfilial" is as follows:
Mencius said, "There are three kinds of unfilial, and the biggest one is the last. Get married without telling, because there is no future. This gentleman thinks he is still suing. "
In Mencius' eyes, "childlessness" is the most serious of the three most unfilial behaviors. Here Mencius also took the holy king "Shun" as an example, pointing out that Shun married without telling his parents in order to avoid "childlessness". After all, it is not good to be obedient to your parents, which will hinder you from marrying. Therefore, by extension, Mencius pointed out that if Shun is the same, Shun's "no prosecution" can be regarded as a complaint to his parents in the eyes of a gentleman.
As for Mencius' "no posterity is great", it has become a point of debate in the world. Some people think that Mencius' "no queen" here simply revolves around "having children" As a result, many people criticized the phenomenon of "blindly following parents and children" in feudal society with the evidence of "great childlessness" Some people think that Mencius' "no descendants" here actually means "not being respected by future generations" and implies that "people's character is not good". In other words, Mencius's "childlessness" means "unfilial", which means that "a person's moral character is not good and can not be respected by future generations", which is the greatest unfilial to his parents.
Generally speaking, Yan Xiaoer is more in favor of the second view, because Mencius inherited Confucius and even claimed to be his successor, which is naturally based on Confucius' thought and further developed on this basis. Confucius once denounced "those who are old but never die are thieves". This is Confucius' criticism that the behavior of the elderly is not in line with etiquette and has a bad influence on future generations, and he thinks they are pests. Following Confucius' words, we can know that what Confucius and Mencius said should be "virtue", not "carrying on the family line" in the sense of behavior.
In order to avoid "no queen", Wang Shun got married without telling him. Why did Mencius say that this was an act appreciated by a gentleman? Even after thousands of years, the problems people face in human nature are actually quite similar. Some people simply think that being nice to a person is to follow this person and meet all his requirements. This is actually an act that is almost "killing", which is harmful and useless.
Similarly, on the issue of serving parents, if we blindly obey and thus indiscriminately, it will cause big problems. Not to mention that doing so is not good for the development of parents' temperament, and may even hurt innocent people. Take the "no offspring" discussed in this paper as an example. In ancient society, including modern times, how many parents forced their children to have offspring by "no offspring" or even "playing mandarin ducks"?
However, like Confucius, Yan Xiaoer believes that Mencius is also a saint who understands human nature. Therefore, it is not advisable to simply take the phrase "nothing is great" out of context. Combined with "no queen is great", "marry without telling" means no queen. Mr. Wang thinks it is still a lawsuit. "Yan Xiaoer saw the meaning of Mencius.
As we all know, Shun's parents are grumpy and often design schemes to harm Shun, and Shun, as the representative of the "holy king" respected by ancient China literati for thousands of years, almost represents the ideal personality. From then on, Wang Shun will no longer argue with his parents. On the contrary, he will be filial to his parents in a way of "understanding the righteousness deeply".
If a holy king like Shun fails to leave his children because of his parents' malicious troubles, his influence will be reviled and hated by future generations. On the other hand, on the basis of a deep understanding of his parents' nature, he adopted the practice of "marrying without telling" on the issue of "no heir", showing a gentleman's flexible style. You should know that "benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faith are never straightforward", and circuitous flexibility is also one of the necessary skills for a gentleman to live.
Here, judging from the original intention of Shun's "silence" and the actual situation of Shun's parents, a gentleman will not stick to the narrow cognition of "parents' orders", so he will regard Shun's silence as "words".
From this, we can easily see that Mencius' concern here is not whether people will have descendants, but to tell the world that a virtuous gentleman will be flexible and pay attention to virtue by taking "having descendants" as an example.
3. Conclusion To sum up, Yan Xiaoer believes that Mencius' "childless is the greatest" will never be narrowly confined to "parents' orders" such as "marriage and funeral" and "reproduction", but emphasizes the principle and flexibility of "gentleman Xiu De".
That is to say, according to Mencius' logic, marrying without telling is a kind of "flexibility", and "not telling", which is regarded by a gentleman as "telling", is actually a gentleman's recognition of the original intention of "preserving" his parents' reputation and "hiding" from obedience. This "kill two birds with one stone" actually reflects the gentleman's efforts in principle and flexibility. You can think about whether this is true.
Note: This article is the original and exclusive release of Yan Xiaoer's philosophical works. If there is any infringement such as handling or plagiarism, the responsibility will be investigated once found. The pictures in this paper come from the Internet, and some materials come from the Internet. They were hacked and deleted (within two weeks). Please enjoy this series.