Mencius, a thinker from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
The translation is as follows:
Mencius said: "Shun benefited from the field work and was selected from the wall building work. Glue was recommended from selling fish and salt. Guan Zhong was promoted from the position of a soldier. Sun Shuai was promoted from the seaside. Prissy was selected from the market.
Therefore, God wants to give such people a great mission. He must first temper his will, make his bones and muscles tired, make his body hungry and suffer from poverty, so things will never go smoothly. This will shake his mind, exercise his temperament and increase his talent.
Mencius and Gao Zi were both from the Warring States period. Mencius holds the theory of good nature (people are born with the power to be good), while Gao Zi holds the theory of no good and no evil (that is, people are born with no distinction between good and evil). Starting with their arguments, Gao Zi concentrated on Mencius' theory of human nature, moral outlook and related theories.
Extended data:
Source of works
Mencius
Seven Articles is a compilation of Mencius' speeches during the Warring States Period, which records the argument between Mencius and hundred schools of thought, the words and deeds of his disciples and the lobbying of governors. It was compiled by Mencius and his disciples (Zhang Wan and others). ).
Mencius recorded Mencius' thoughts on governing the country, political views (the debate between benevolent government and Wang Ba, people-oriented, respecting the right and wrong of the monarch's heart, people being the monarch, and following the monarch being light) and political actions. It was written in the mid-Warring States period and belongs to Confucian classics.
His theoretical starting point is the theory of good nature and advocates the rule of virtue. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhu called Mencius, The Analects of Confucius, Daxue and The Doctrine of the Mean the Four Books. Since the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, it has been regarded as a family heirloom. Just like textbooks now.
Introduction to Mencius
Mencius is the longest and heaviest of the four books, with more than 35 thousand words. From then until the end of the Qing Dynasty, the "Four Books" had been a compulsory part of the imperial examination. Mencius' theory is not only pure and broad, but also full of heroic beauty.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Mencius Gao Zixia