Mencius..

Mencius, from Myths and Legends of China, 1922 by E. T. C. Werner
Name Mencius 孟子
Birth 372 BCE
Death 289 BCE
School/tradition Confucianism
Main interests Ethics, Social philosophy, Political philosophy
Notable ideas Confucianism
Influenced by Confucius
Influenced Nearly every Eastern philosopher

*What I like about Mencius's philosophy is his optimism towards human nature and his focus on cultivating our own character. The way we are today have a lot to do with our surroundings, but if we ourselves lack the self-awareness of cultivating the four beginnings: benevolence, righteousness, respect and the capacity to distinguish right from wrong. With the capacity to distinguish right and wrong is human innate ability, without its action then this special talent loses its meaning don't you think?

The School of Mencius

The doctrine of the School of Mencius is represented most clearly in two books. One is the Doctrine of the Mean, which is believed to have been written, edited or transmitted by Tzu Ssu, the grandson of Confucius and the disciple of Tseng Tzu, the youngest disciple of Confucius. The other is the Book of Mencius, which fully develops the ideas propounded in the Doctrine of the Mean.

The School grounds its teachings in Confucius through devoting its attention to the humanistic understanding of Heaven, humanity and the harmony between them, while also forming its own distinctive doctrines through concentrating on human self-cultivation and self-transformation. At the heart of Mencius' teaching is the belief that human beings are born with the knowledge of the good and the ability to do good. Everyone is born with what Mencius described as the 'four beginnings': benevolence, righteousness, respect and the capacity to distinguish right from wrong.

View on human nature
While Confucius himself did not explicitly focus on the subject of human nature, Mencius asserted the innate goodness of the individual, believing that it was society's influence – its lack of a positive cultivating influence – that caused bad moral character. "He who exerts his mind to the utmost knows his nature"[6] and "the way of learning is none other than finding the lost mind".[7]

The Four Beginnings
To show innate goodness, Mencius used the example of a child falling down a well. Witnesses of this event immediately feel

“ alarm and distress, not to gain friendship with the child's parents, nor to seek the praise of their neighbors and friends, nor because they dislike the reputation [of lack of humanity if they did not rescue the child]...
The feeling of commiseration is the beginning of humanity; the feeling of shame and dislike is the beginning of righteousness; the feeling of deference and compliance is the beginning of propriety; and the feeling of right and wrong is the beginning of wisdom.

Men have these Four Beginnings just as they have their four limbs. Having these Four Beginnings, but saying that they cannot develop them is to destroy themselves.[8]

Anyone who fully realises his heart/mind understands Heaven and serves the mandate of Heaven. These beliefs influenced Mencius' perception of politics. The doctrine of benevolence must be brought into politics so that government is humane and moral. It is the responsibility of the ruler to ensure the economic well-being of his subjects, to provide them with education and, in doing so, to rule through winning their loyalty and confidence rather than through force. If rulers oppress the people then they lost the mandate of Heaven, and the people have the right to remote them.

The Works of Mencius

Chapter I.
The agreement of sages not affected by place or time.
1. Mencius said, 'Shun was born in Chû-fang, removed to Fû-hsiâ, and died in Ming-t'iâo;-- a man near the wild tribes on the east.

2. 'King Wan was born in Châu by mount Ch'î, and died in Pî-ying;-- a man near the wild tribes on the west.

3. 'Those regions were distant from one another more than a thousand lî, and the age of the one sage was posterior to that of the other more than a thousand years. But when they got their wish, and carried their principles into practice throughout the Middle Kingdom, it was like uniting the two halves of a seal.

4. 'When we examine those sages, both the earlier and the later, their principles are found to be the same.'

Chapter II.
Good government lies in equal measures for the general good, not in acts of favour to individuals.
1. When Tsze-ch'an was chief minister of the State of Chang, he would convey people across the Chan and Wei in his own carriage.

2. Mencius said, 'It was kind, but showed that he did not understand the practice of government.

3. 'When in the eleventh month of the year the foot-bridges are completed, and the carriage-bridges in the twelfth month, the people have not the trouble of wading.

4. 'Let a governor conduct his rule on principles of equal justice, and, when he goes abroad, he may cause people to be removed out of his path. But how can he convey everybody across the rivers?

5. 'It follows that if a governor will try to please everybody, he will find the days not sufficient for his work.'

Chapter III.
What treatment sovereigns give to their ministers will be returned to them by a corresponding behavior.
1. Mencius said to the king Hsüan of Ch'î, 'When the prince regards his ministers as his hands and feet, his ministers regard their prince as their belly and heart; when he regards them as his dogs and horses, they regard him as another man; when he regards them as the ground or as grass, they regard him as a robber and an enemy.'

2. The king said, 'According to the rules of propriety, a minister wears mourning when he has left the service of a prince. How must a prince behave that his old ministers may thus go into mourning?'

3. Mencius replied,'The admonitions of a minister having been followed, and his advice listened to, so that blessings have descended on the people, if for some cause he leaves the country, the prince sends an escort to conduct him beyond the boundaries. He also anticipates with recommendatory intimations his arrival in the country to which he is proceeding. When he has been gone three years and does not return, only then at length does he take back his fields and residence. This treatment is what is called a "thrice-repeated display of consideration." When a prince acts thus, mourning will be worn on leaving his service.

4. 'Now-a-days, the remonstrances of a minister are not followed, and his advice is not listened to, so that no blessings descend on the people. When for any cause he leaves the country, the prince tries to seize him and hold him a prisoner. He also pushes him to extremity in the country to which he has gone, and on the very day of his departure, takes back his fields and residence. This treatment shows him to be what we call "a robber and an enemy." What mourning can be worn for a robber and an enemy?'

Chapter IV.
Prompt action is necessary at the right time.
Mencius said, 'When scholars are put to death without any crime, the great officers may leave the country. When the people are slaughtered without any crime, the scholars may remove.'

Chapter V.
The influence of the ruler's example.
Mencius said, 'If the sovereign be benevolent, all will be benevolent. If the sovereign be righteous, all will be righteous.'

Chapter VI.
The great man makes no mistakes in matters of propriety and righteousness.
Mencius said, 'Acts of propriety which are not really proper, and acts of righteousness which are not really righteous, the great man does not do.'

Chapter VII.
What duties are due from, and must be renedered by, the virtuous and talented.
Mencius said, 'Those who keep the Mean, train up those who do not, and those who have abilities, train up those who have not, and hence men rejoice in having fathers and elder brothers who are possessed of virtue and talent. If they who keep the Mean spurn those who do not, and they who have abilities spurn those who have not, then the space between them-- those so gifted and the ungifted-- will not admit an inch.'

Chapter VIII.
Clear discrimination of what is wrong and right must precede vigorous right-doing.
Mencius said, 'Men must be decided on what they will NOT do, and then they are able to act with vigour in what they ought to do.'

Chapter IX.
Evil speaking is sure to bring with it evil consequences.
Mencius said, 'What future misery have they and ought they to endure, who talk of what is not good in others!'

Chapter X.
That Confucius kept the mean.
Mencius said, 'Chung-nî did not do extraordinary things.'

Chapter XI.
What is right is the supreme pursuit of the great man.
Mencius said,'The great man does not think beforehand of his words that they may be sincere, nor of his actions that they may be resolute;-- he simply speaks and does what is right.'

Chapter XII.
A man is great because he is childlike.
Mencius said, 'The great man is he who does not lose his child's-heart.'

Chapter XIII.
Filial piety seen in the obsequies of parents.
Mencius said, 'The nourishment of parents when living is not sufficient to be accounted the great thing. It is only in the performing their obsequies when dead that we have what can be considered the great thing.'

Chapter XIV.
The value of learning thoroughly in-wrought into the mind.
Mencius said, 'The superior man makes his advances in what he is learning with deep earnestness and by the proper course, wishing to get hold of it as in himself. Having got hold of it in himself, he abides in it calmly and firmly. Abiding in it calmly and firmly, he reposes a deep reliance on it. Reposing a deep reliance on it, he seizes it on the left and right, meeting everywhere with it as a fountain from which things flow. It is on this account that the superior man wishes to get hold of what he is learning as in himself.'

Chapter XV.
[A continuation of the last chapter.]
Mencius said, 'In learning extensively and discussing minutely what is learned, the object of the superior man is that he may be able to go back and set forth in brief what is essential.'

Chapter XVI.
[The necessity of the heart in rulers.]
Mencius said, 'Never has he who would by his excellence subdue men been able to subdue them. Let a prince seek by his excellence to nourish men, and he will be able to subdue the whole kingdom. It is impossible that any one should become ruler of the people to whom they have not yielded the subjection of the heart.'

Chapter XVII.
[Mencius's explanation of inaupicious words.]
Mencius said, 'Words which are not true are inauspicious, and the words which are most truly obnoxious to the name of inauspicious, are those which throw into the shade men of talents and virtue.'

Chapter XVIII.
How Mencius explained Confucius's praise of water.
1. The disciple Hsü said, 'Chung-nî often praised water, saying, "0 water! 0 water!" What did he find in water to praise?'

2. Mencius replied, 'There is a spring of water; how it gushes out! It rests not day nor night. It fills up every hole, and then advances, flowing onto the four seas. Such is water having a spring! It was this which he found in it to praise.

3. 'But suppose that the water has no spring.-- In the seventh and eighth when the rain falls abundantly, the channels in the fields are all filled, but their being dried up again may be expected in a short time. So a superior man is ashamed of a reputation beyond his merits.'

Chapter XIX.
Whereby sages are distinguished from other men;-- illustrated in Shun.
1. Mencius said, 'That whereby man differs from the lower animals is but small. The mass of people cast it away, while superior men preserve it.

2. 'Shun clearly understood the multitude of things, and closely observed the relations of humanity. He walked along the path of benevolence and righteousness; he did not need to pursue benevolence and righteousness.'

Chapter XX.
The same subject;-- illustrated in Yü, T'ang, Wan, Wû, and Châu-kung.
1. Mencius said, 'Yü hated the pleasant wine, and loved good words.

2. 'T'ang held fast the Mean, and employed men of talents and virtue without regard to where they came from.

3. 'King Wan looked on the people as he would on a man who was wounded, and he looked towards the right path as if he could not see it.

4. King Wû did not slight the near, and did not forget the distant.

5. 'The duke of Châu desired to unite in himself the virtues of those kings, those founders of the three dynasties, that he might display in his practice the four things which they did. If he saw any thing in them not suited to his time, he looked up and thought about it, from daytime into the night, and when he was fortunate enough to master the difficulty, he sat waiting for the morning.'

Chapter XXI.
The same subject;-- illustrated in Confucius.
1. Mencius said, 'The traces of sovereign rule were extinguished, and the royal odes ceased to be made. When those odes ceased to be made, then the Ch'un Ch'iû was produced.

2. 'The Shang of Tsin, the Tâo-wû of Ch'û, and the Ch'un Ch'iû of Lû were books of the same character.

3. 'The subject of the Ch'un Ch'iû was the affairs of Hwan of Chî and Wan of Tsin, and its style was the historical. Confucius said, "Its righteous decisions I ventured to make."'

Chapter XXII.
The same subject;-- illustrated in Mencius himself.
1. Mencius said, 'The influence of a sovereign sage terminates in the fifth generation. The influence of a mere sage does the same.

2. 'Although I could not be a disciple of Confucius himself, I have endeavoured to cultivate my virtue by means of others who were.'