"Honest Administration" Gathers Public Opinion and "People-oriented" wins the hearts and minds of the people
Mencius (372 BC – 289 BC), courtesy name Ke (372 BC – 289 BC), courtesy name Zi You, was a famous thinker, educator, and representative of the Confucian school during the Warring States period, known as "Ya Sheng", and together with Confucius, he was known as "Kong Meng".
Mencius lost his father at an early age, his family was poor, he grew up under the education of his mother, and was a student of Confucius's grandson Si. After completing his studies, he lobbied the princes as a scholar and went to the Liang (Wei) kingdoms, the State of Qi, the State of Song, the State of Teng, the State of Lu, etc., to promote his own doctrine. In his later years, he returned to his former residence to give lectures, and together with his students, compiled his remarks into seven articles of Mencius.
In the seven chapters of Mencius, "benevolent government" is concentrated, which is also the core of Mencius's idea of honest government. He developed Confucius's concept of "benevolence", advocating "controlling the people's property" and "controlling the people's permanent property", so that the people have a certain amount of land and housing, and other ideas such as light forced labor, thin endowment, and reduction of punishment are also of positive significance.
"People-oriented" is an important part of Mencius' thought on honest government. He pointed out that "the people are precious, the society is secondary, and the king is light," and the key to whether or not we can "win the people" lies in whether we can win the hearts and minds of the people. Proceeding from this, he opposed the war of annexation, which brought heavy disasters to the working people, and regarded the people's hearts and minds as the decisive factor in the outcome of the war.
Mencius also proposed a set of personality cultivation theories. The first is "widowhood", adhering to "conscience", and not being tempted by external objects. The second is to "seek revenge on oneself" when encountering problems, always examine one's own shortcomings and deficiencies, and earnestly overcome them. The third is to be good at cultivating the "mighty qi" and maintaining the spirit and moral strength of the supreme and strong, indestructible spirit. This is also a theory of honest government, which requires officials to purify their hearts through self-cultivation, cultivate a gentlemanly personality that refuses to corrode and never stick, and resist temptations from all sides.
Mencius's people-oriented thinking, his sense of responsibility for caring for the fate of the country and the nation, and the awe-inspiring righteousness of "the rich and the noble cannot be adulterous, the poor cannot be moved, and the mighty cannot be bent" are all precious spiritual wealth left to us.