Source: Mencius in the Spring and Autumn Period "Mencius" Qi Da Hunger. Qian ao eats for Tao and hunger. If you are hungry, please come, and trade will come hastily. Qian Ao ate on the left and drank on the right, saying, "Hey! Come and eat! " Raise your eyes and look at it and say, "Give but don't eat your food, so you too!" " So thank you for dying without food. Hearing this, Ceng Zi said, "Micro-peace! Embarrassed, you can go, you can thank it, you can eat it. "
Interpretation of vernacular:
The famine in Qi is serious. Qian ao prepares meals for hungry people passing by by the roadside. A hungry man covered his face with sleeves, shuffled his feet, and his eyes came over in a daze. Qian ao took the dish in his left hand and the soup in his right, and said, "Hello! Come and eat! "
The hungry man looked up at him and said, "I am in this situation because I don't eat food given by others!" " "Qian ao went up to apologize to him, but he eventually starved to death because he didn't eat. Ceng Zi said, "I'm afraid it's not necessary! Qian ao can certainly refuse when he is rude, but he can eat after apologizing. "
Extended data writing background:
Confucius' theory of "benevolence" is a conscious morality; Mencius' "benevolence" has both educational functions. The monarch mainly focuses on Xiu De, and virtue is the condition for implementing benevolent policies, so he advocates "the rule of virtue". Mencius advocated the benevolent policy of serving people with virtue and opposed the hegemonic policy of serving people with force, aiming at alleviating the pain of people's livelihood and easing social contradictions. Therefore, Mencius advocated "kingly politics" and opposed bullying and being afraid of hard work to serve the people.
Mencius believed that the ideal economic system was "minefield system". The "farmland system" means that the land belongs to the state, and the state grants farmland to the people for cultivation, but the people also have to help cultivate farmland as a tax. So farmers have "constant production" (constant and fixed cultivated land), and the country will be stable.
Mencius believed that it was necessary to "cultivate talents in the world" and advocated personality and moral education. He said, "We should strictly observe filial piety." . Moreover, Mencius believes that self-cultivation is the basic point of reading, but he also believes that human goodness cannot be cultivated from the outside (education can only play an influential role), and ultimately it must be realized by one's own thinking. In the method of self-cultivation, we advocate free development and guide the situation.
In addition, Mencius also attached great importance to the learning environment. Only by putting students in a good environment and giving them spontaneous education can they succeed. The influence of Mencius' theory on later generations did not inspire Neo-Confucianism.
Mencius put forward the theory of "inner sage", pointing out that human nature is good, as long as everyone develops goodness, suppresses material desires and reflects on themselves. This method of introspection became the mainstream of Confucianism in later generations. Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi, Lu Jiuyuan, Wang Yangming and other Song and Ming Neo-Confucians all inherited Mencius' theory in this respect.
Mencius inherited and developed Confucius' thought of ruling by virtue, and developed it into the theory of benevolent governance, which became the core of his political thought. He applied the principles of "pro" and "long" to politics, eased class contradictions and safeguarded the long-term interests of the feudal ruling class.
On the one hand, Mencius strictly distinguished the class status of the ruler and the ruled, and thought that "those who do things rule their people, and those who do things rule their people", and imitated the Zhou system to draw up a hierarchy from emperor to ruler; On the other hand, the relationship between the ruler and the ruled is compared to the relationship between parents and children, and it is advocated that the ruler should care about the sufferings of the people like parents, and the people should be close to and serve the ruler like parents.