"Yasan" Mencius

　　Mencius (372 BC – 289 BC), courtesy name Ke, was a native of the State of Zou (邹国, in present-day Zoucheng, Shandong Province), and a representative figure of Confucianism during the Warring States period of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Its name is not recorded in ancient books before the Han Dynasty, but after the Cao Wei and Jin Dynasties, there are different character names such as Ziche, Ziju, Ziyu, and Zizhan, and the font size may be appended by posterity and may not be credible. The date of birth and death is not recorded in the historical records, and most scholars have adopted it, including the birth recorded in the Genealogy of Mencius in the fourth year of King Lie of Zhou (372 BC) and the death in the twenty-sixth year of King Zhao of Zhou (289 BC).

　　Mencius's disciple Wan Zhang and the rest of the disciples wrote the book Mencius. Inherit and carry forward the ideas of Confucius, becoming a generation of Confucian masters second only to Confucius, with the honorific title of "Yasheng", and together with Confucius is called "Confucius and Meng".

　　Life

　　It is said that Mengzi was a descendant of Meng Qingfu, the eldest son of Duke Huan of Lu, and Meng Qing's son Mengsun Ao, the son of Meng Qing's father, established another clan, known as the Mengsun clan, or the Zhongsun clan and the Meng clan. In the eighth year of the Reign of Lu Mu (408 BC), the State of Qi attacked the Mengsun clan's food city, and the descendants of the Mengsun clan dispersed. Mencius's ancestors moved from the State of Lu to the State of Zou (邹国, in present-day ZouCheng, Shandong Province), and Mencius became a native of the State of Zou. According to legend, his father's name was Ji (極), and his mother's surname was also said to be of the Qi and Li clans. It is said that Mencius lost his father at the age of three, Meng Mu painstakingly raised him to adulthood, Meng Mu was very strict, and his stories such as "Meng Mother's Three Migrations" and "Broken Machine Godson" have become beautiful talk through the ages and are a model for motherhood in later generations. Zi Si was a teacher, but according to historical research, it was found that Zi Si died decades before Mencius was born, so it is still more credible as recorded in the "Records of History" that the disciples who were employed by Zi Si are more credible.

　　Mencius once emulated Confucius and led his disciples to lobby the nations. However, it was not accepted by the countries at that time, and retired to write with his disciples. There are seven passages of Mencius, which are titled: "King Hui of Liang" up and down; "Gongsun Ugly" above and below; Teng Wengong above and below; "Leaving Lou"; "Ten Thousand Chapters" above and below; "Confessions" above and below; "Dedication" above and below. The starting point of his doctrine is the theory of sexual goodness, proposing "benevolent government" and "royal way", and advocating the rule of virtue.

　　During the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhu Xi combined Mencius with the Analects, the University, and the Zhongyong as the "Four Books". From then until the end of the Qing Dynasty, the "Four Books" have always been the compulsory content of the examination. Mencius's writings are reasoned, detailed and powerful, and longer than debate.

　　thought

　　Mencius thought is mainly divided into political philosophy, that is, benevolence, and philosophy of life, that is, sexual goodness (human goodness).

　　The theory of sexual goodness and sexual evil

　　Main articles: Human nature, sexual goodness, sexual evil, and psychological egoism

　　Pre-Qin Confucians paid great attention to the question of good and evil in human nature. In the history of Chinese sexuality, the first to propose the theory of sexual goodness was Mencius. He believes that human nature is good, like water flowing down, which is an indisputable fact. Mencius believed that all people are born with the most basic common innate nature, which is "sexual goodness" or "intolerable heart", or compassion and compassion for others. For example, he said, when a child suddenly sees a child falling into a well ("at first sight the widow will fall into the well"), he feels fear and sympathy. This kind of sympathy is not to please the parents of this child, nor is it to gain a good reputation among the villagers and friends, nor is it to hate the reputation of seeing death and not saving, but it is completely from the innate nature of man, which is the "heart of not being tolerant of people."

　　The "heart of intolerance" is also called the "heart of compassion." In addition, there are "the heart of shame", "the heart of resignation", and "the heart of right and wrong". These four minds (also called the "four ends" or "four virtues") are the basis for Mencius's discussion of the inherent goodness of human nature. Mencius believed that the difference between man and beast is very small, only that man has these "hearts". Without these "hearts," one cannot be counted as human. In his view, if one is not good for man, it is not a matter of nature, but because he has abandoned his nature and has not maintained it well, it can never be said that he did not have these "good" natures in the first place. Therefore, if a person has unwholesome thoughts and behaviors, he should think behind closed doors, check whether he has given up those innate "hearts", and strive to get these "hearts" back in order to restore human nature. This is what Mencius called "asking for peace of mind", which later generations called "restoration". If you reflect on yourself, everything is in line with the moral concept of talent, that is the greatest happiness, which is what Mencius called "reflexive sincerity, great happiness."

　　Mencius's theory of sexual goodness had a great influence on traditional thought, and the first sentence of the "Three Character Classic" circulated after the Song Dynasty was "At the beginning of man, nature is good." The theory of sexual goodness also became a formal concept in later Confucianism.

　　In the pre-Qin Confucians, there was a faction that opposed Mencius's theory of sexual goodness and advocated the theory of sexual evil. The representative of this faction is Xunzi. Xun Zi put forward the famous argument that "human nature is evil, and its good is also false". He believes that the nature of human beings is: when they are hungry, they want to eat, when they are cold, they want to wear warmth, and when they are tired, they want to rest, which is the true expression of human nature. In his view, "good profit", "evil", "good voice", etc., are all natural passions of people, and they are also the manifestations of human sexual evil. And the moral consciousness of goodness is the result of acquired artificial processing. This kind of acquired artificial processing is called "pseudo".

　　Xunzi for the first time used the categories of "sex" and "hypocrisy" to illustrate the relationship between man's natural nature and social morality in response to Mencius's theory of sexual goodness, opposed the moralization of man's natural attributes, emphasized the "distinction between sexual and false", and believed that man's natural nature is based on the desire for material life generated by physiological functions, and social moral norms are the restriction and regulation of this desire, and the two are opposites. At the same time, the two are unified, "asexual, then falsehood is nothing; without hypocrisy, sex cannot be beautiful." Sexual pseudo-union, then the name of the saint one". This means that without natural nature, the artificial processing of social morality cannot be exerted; without artificial processing, human nature cannot be transformed from evil to good. The role of the saint is to combine and unify "sex" and "falsehood" very well.

　　Xun Zi comprehensively discussed the antagonistic and unified relationship between "sex" and "pseudo", and emphasized the transformation of human nature, putting forward the views of "turning sex into a hypocrite" and "painting people can be Yu", believing that people have the possibility of changing their nature and becoming saints. The view of Xunzi's sexual evil theory had a great influence on the Dharma, but it has never become a Confucian orthodoxy.[citation request]. Fu Si Nian believed that Xunzi's statement was similar to Confucius's, but Confucius and Mencius had very different views on sex, and this difference was "song ru knew it, not song ru dared to say it."

　　Political thought

　　People-oriented thinking

　　"The people are precious, the society is secondary, and the king is light." This means that the people come first, the state second, and the king last. Mencius believed that the monarch should put the love of the people first, and the politicians should protect the rights of the people, which is Mencius's people-oriented thought (some people think that Mencius was the pioneer of democracy). Mencius agreed that if the monarch had no way, the people had the right to overthrow the regime. Mencius believed that to take power, there must be love for the people and legal means. Moreover, political power also depends on the will of the people, and if the virtue and government of the person in power are not accepted by the people, then the person in power will lose the qualification to continue to govern. Mencius also quoted the Shang Shu Tai Oath: "Heaven sees its own people, and heaven listens to its own people" to warn people to attach importance to the people's hearts. For this reason, the "Yiwenzhi" of the Book of Han only placed Mencius in the "Zhuzi Strategy" and regarded it as a sub-book, and did not get its due status.

　　By the time of the Later Shu of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the Later Shu lord Meng Chang ordered the inscription of the Eleven Classics of the Book of Letters, including Mencius, which may have been the beginning of Mencius's inclusion in the "Scriptures". By the time of Emperor Xiaozong of the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhu Xi combined Mencius with the Analects, the University, and the Zhongyong as the "Four Books" and became one of the "Thirteen Classics", and the status of Mencius was pushed to its peak.

　　It is explained that Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, dissatisfied with Mencius's people-oriented thinking, ordered Liu Sanwu and others to abridge the relevant contents of Mencius. For example, in the "Dedication Chapter", delete "The people are precious, the society is secondary, and the king is light." "Cross. And "Dedication", delete "I now know the importance of killing relatives: the father of the murderer, the man also kills his father; the brother who kills, the man also kills his brother." However, it is not suicide, one ear. Seven sentences. In addition, in the "Leaving Lou Chapter", delete "If the king regards his subjects as brothers and sisters, then the subjects regard the king as his heart; if the king regards his subjects as dogs and horses, then the subjects regard the king as the people; the king regards the subjects as the soil mustard, and the subjects regard the king as vengeance." Six sentences.

　　Benevolence and the Way of kings

　　Mencius advocated that the monarch practice benevolent government and undertake the theory of sexual goodness, Mencius believed that "people have the heart of not tolerating people", but there is "the government of intolerable people", as long as the monarch promotes his own benevolence, the so-called "young and young and young, old and old", from loving their own families, to loving the people, is benevolent government.

　　The specific measures for promoting benevolent government are to practice the "royal way", to make the people rich and the people happy, that is, to "protect the people and the king", the people naturally support the monarch, and the country is naturally rich, strong and stable.

　　Academics disagree as to whether Mencius advocated the royal way or the virtue of the tao. Judging from the Mawangdui Shushu and guodian Jiansi Meng's masterpiece "Five Elements", Mencius advocated the good way and the moral way. The "Five Elements" says: Benevolence, righteousness, wisdom, and wisdom are complete, and the good way is also; benevolence, righteousness, wisdom, and wisdom are all five elements, and virtue is also true. The good way, the humane way also; the moral way, the way of heaven also. "The Boy Asks The Easy" summarizes the virtues derived from the "I Ching" and says: The so-called virtue is the virtue and virtue of fraternity, good life, fairness, justice, honesty, trustworthiness, civilization, harmony, revolution, rejuvenation, democracy, and the rule of law.

　　Status changes after death

　　Mencius is one of the most important representatives of Confucianism, and the Book of Han and the Biography of king Chu Yuan says: "Since the death of Confucius, the people who have embellished the text have been many." Wei Mengke... Naturalistic knowledge, access to ancient and modern, its words have complemented the world. But Mencius's status was not very high before the Song Dynasty, and there was even a satirical poem about Mencius: "How did a beggar ever have a second wife?" How many chickens are there in the neighborhood? When there was Zhou Tianzi at that time, what did they say about Wei Qi? ”。 Beginning with The Middle Tang Dynasty's Han Yu's "Original Tao" and listing Mencius as the only person in pre-Qin Confucianism to inherit Confucius's "Taoist system", there was a "upgrading movement" of Mencius, and mencius and his book gradually rose, replacing Yan Hui as "Yasheng". In the fourth year of the reign of Emperor Shenzong of Song (1071), the book Mencius was included in the subjects of the imperial examination for the first time. In the sixth year of YuanFeng (1083), Mencius was first officially posthumously named "Duke of ZouGuo", and the following year was approved to enjoy the Confucius Temple. Later, the book "Mencius" was upgraded to a Confucian classic, and Zhu Xi of the Southern Song Dynasty merged "Mencius" with the "Analects", "University", and "Zhongyong" into the "Four Books", and its actual status was even higher than that of the "Five Classics". From the Yuan Dynasty to the first year of Shun (1330), Mencius was crowned "Ya Shenggong" and later called "Ya Sheng", second only to Confucius. Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty compiled the "Mencius Verses", and deleted the chapters and sentences in the "Mencius", such as "the people are noble, the society is secondary, the king is light", "the person who is a thief is called a husband, and the one who hears a husband is not heard of", and so on[4]. Zhu Yuanzhang once said, "Let this old man be spared today!" The Vietnamese scholar Zhang Hanchao said in the article: "For those who are scholars, the way of non-Yao Shun is not Chen, and the way of non-Confucius and Meng is not written." ”

　　Overseas influence

　　Mencius had some influence on Yoshida Shoin, the initiator of the Meiji Restoration in Japan, and others. Hideki Tojo, who was sentenced to death as a war criminal for initiating World War II, also quoted Mencius in prison: "The sincere one, the way of heaven is also; the one who thinks of sincerity, the way of man" (Mencius, Leaving Lou Shang).

　　appraise

　　Han Yu, the head of the Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties, commented on Mencius: he described Mencius as the heir of Confucius, and believed that the way of the saints was lost after Mencius, giving Mencius the same status as Confucius in the Taoist system.

　　Su Xun of the Northern Song Dynasty has two volumes of "Su Commentary on Mencius" (Bingbu Shilang Ji Yunjia Collection)

　　The Southern Song Dynasty Lu Xiangshan believed that Mencius knew the heavens with his heart to establish his greatness first, and the so-called "big" character refers to the "original mind" (the heart of the body) or the reason.

　　Ming Taizu ordered Liu Sanwu to delete Mencius and compile Mencius verses.

　　Ming Wang Yangming: The peak of mind learning.

　　Zhu Xi compiled the "Mencius Verses" and deleted the chapters and sentences in the "Mencius", such as "the people are noble, the society is secondary, and the king is light".

　　Fu Si Nian believed that Mencius's logical kung fu was far inferior to Xunzi's, and his discussion of sexual goodness was "unrestrained", "Mencius's words should be above the beard, and xun qing is also below." ”

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