Life of Mencius

Mencius (about 372 ~ 289 BC) was a great thinker and one of the main representatives of Confucianism in the Warring States period. Mingke was born in Zou (now Zou County, Shandong Province). Born in the fourth year of the reign of Zhou, he died in the twenty-sixth year. According to legend, Mencius is a descendant of Lu nobles. He lost his father when he was a child, and his family was poor. He was a student of Zisi. After finishing his studies, he lobbied the governors as scholars in an attempt to promote his own political views, and successively went to Liang (Wei), Qi, Song, Teng and Lu. At that time, several great powers devoted themselves to strengthening this rich country and striving for reunification through violent means. Mencius' theory of benevolent governance is considered to be "circuitous and broader than things" and has no chance to be implemented. Finally, he retired to give lectures, and together with his students, he "wrote a poem as a preface, wrote a book, expounded Zhong Ni's meaning, and wrote seven pieces of Mencius".

Mencius lived in an era when a hundred schools of thought contended, and "Yang Zhu's words prevailed in the world". Mencius criticized it fiercely from the standpoint of Confucianism. Mencius inherited and developed Confucius' thoughts and put forward a complete ideological system, which had a great influence on later generations and was regarded as the "sage" after Confucius.

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.

Mencius closely combined ethics with politics, emphasizing that moral cultivation is the basis of doing politics well. He said: "The foundation of the world is in the country, the foundation of the country is at home, and the foundation of the home is in the body." Later, the idea of "nourishing qi and calming the world" put forward by University was developed according to this idea of Mencius.

The highest category of Mencius' philosophical thought is heaven. Mencius inherited Confucius' thought of destiny, removed the residual meaning of personality god, and imagined heaven as a spiritual entity with moral attributes. He said: "Honest people, heaven is also." Mencius defined the moral concept of honesty as the essential attribute of heaven, and believed that heaven was the origin of the inherent moral concept of human nature. Mencius' ideological system, including his political thoughts and ethical thoughts, takes heaven as the category.