Hello everyone, here is a small broadcast reading, starting from today, I will use more than ten articles to introduce the thought of the famous thinker Mencius in China, through the book "Mencius" to understand Mencius's thought more systematically, the main reference version is Fu Peirong's "Fu Peirong Translation of Mencius". When it comes to Mencius, we all know that he was one of the famous philosophers, statesmen and representative thinkers of the Confucian school in ancient China, known as "Yasheng".
Born in 372 BC, Mencius was almost 200 years younger than Confucius and 3 years older than Zhuangzi, and was a contemporary of Aristotle in the West. In the era of Mencius, which is also the era of what we often call the "hundred schools of thought", it was a period of high prosperity of ancient thought and culture, of course, there were many thinkers and politicians who were contemporaries of Mencius, such as Shang Martin, Zhuangzi, Huizi, Ghost Valley, Gongsun Long, and later Han Feizi, Xunzi and so on. It was an era of talents and hundreds of schools of thought, Confucianism, Law, Taoism, famous masters and other ideas emerged in an endless stream, all of which had their own ideas and propositions, and the "Mencius" we want to share today is the Confucian classic that has the deepest influence on Chinese culture, "Mencius" and "University", "Zhongyong" and "Analects" are called "Four Books", which is the foundation and soul of Confucian thought. So what exactly does Mencius say, and why is it worth being praised by people for thousands of years? Before sharing Mencius's ideas and contributions, let's briefly understand mencius' life.
Mencius, whose real name was Meng Ke, was a native of the State of Zou during the Warring States period, in the area of present-day Zoucheng, Shandong. His ancestors were the aristocrats of the State of Lu, The Mengsun Clan, and after the decline of the Mengsun Clan, some people moved to the State of Zou, where Mencius was born, and in Mencius's generation, their family did not have any aristocratic aura. Therefore, Mencius is actually similar to Confucius, and he is also a person born into a declining aristocratic family.
Before Meng Ke became Mencius, he was actually a bear child, fortunately, he had a mother who was proficient in educational psychology, and it is said that Mencius's mother was a mother who knew how to educate children very well, and there were many small stories of "Meng Mother godson". For example, "Mengmu Three Moves", "Buy Meat Babble", "Broken Machine Godson" and so on. Among them, "MengMu Three Moves" says that Mengmu has moved home three times in order to prevent Mengzi from being with other bear children, and Mengmu has understood the principle of "near Zhu is red, close to ink is black". Of course, Meng Mu is a well-known "tiger mother", when Mengzi was young, once came home from school, his mother was weaving cloth, and his mother asked him: "How is the study?" Mencius replied carelessly, "Almost", and Meng Mu was very annoyed when she saw that Meng Ke was very indifferent, so she used scissors to cut the woven cloth. Mencius was frightened by his mother's actions and asked his mother, "Why do you want to make such a big fire?" Meng Mu said: "You waste your studies, just like this cut cloth, you are wasted." Virtuous people learn to build a reputation, to learn to increase knowledge, to be able to do things in peace and quiet, and to avoid evil when doing things. If you abandon your studies now, you will have to do lowly labor in the future, and it will be difficult to avoid disasters. Mencius was shocked when he heard this, and never dared to neglect to study again.
Under the influence of his mother, Meng Ke really succeeded in his studies, and he became a disciple of Confucius's grandson, Zisi was confucius's grandson, and Mencius was employed by Zisi's disciples, and he was counted as the fifth generation of Confucius. Mencius inherited Confucius's doctrine of benevolent government and put forward the governing concept of "the monarch is good and benevolent, and the world is invincible", and he was a very ambitious politician. Like Confucius, Mencius wanted to promote his own concept of statecraft, and in order to realize his political ideas, he, like Confucius, traveled around the world to lobby the princes of various countries. Mencius traveled to Qi, Song, Teng, Wei, Lu and other countries for more than twenty years.
In the process of traveling, although Mencius was respected and treated with respect and courtesy by the nations, and his treatment was much stronger than that of Confucius, his ideas were basically not promoted by any monarch, because in fact, it was difficult to fully achieve "benevolent government", and mencius was busy fighting in the middle of the Warring States period, and it was very difficult to truly implement benevolence. After more than twenty years of travel, there was no practical result, so Mencius returned to his homeland and wrote a book with his disciples, writing a book called "Mencius".
When it comes to the book "Mencius", everyone should be familiar with it. For example, we are familiar with the philosophical classic sentences of "The heavens will send down a great task, so that people will first suffer their hearts, strain their bones, and starve their bodies", "Get more help from the Tao, lose the Way and have little help", "Born in sorrow, die in comfort", "Fish I want, bear paws also want me, both can not be obtained" Philosophical classics are from the book "Mencius". Zhu Xi, a great thinker of the Song Dynasty, called Mencius, as well as the Analects, The Mean, and The University, the Four Books. The "Four Books" is the soul and foundation of ancient Chinese Confucianism, and the "Four Books" are the compulsory content of the annual examination of the Song Dynasty, which also pushes the status of Mencius to the peak, and Mencius became the representative of Confucianism and began to call it "Confucius and Meng". In the Yuan Dynasty, Mencius was posthumously named "Ya Shenggong", and the name "Ya Sheng" became a synonym for Mencius. Although Mencius did not achieve fame, and it can even be said that his political ambitions were not carried out, why was the book of Mencius enshrined as a Confucian classic, and Mencius was also revered as "Yasheng"? Next, let's talk about a few key points of Mencius' thought.
The first is: the theory of sexual goodness. Speaking of Mencius's thought, many people first think of Mencius's theory of sexual goodness, Mencius said: "The goodness of human nature, the water is also underneath, there is no goodness in man, there is no water that can not be down", mencius's ethical philosophy, "sexual goodness" is one of his labels, and Xunzi's "sexual evil theory", as for Mencius's statement that human nature is inherently good, or human nature is good, in fact, there has been controversy. But in any case, the goodness of human nature is the starting point of Mencius's ethical thought. Liang Qichao believes that Mencius's "theory of sexual goodness" emphasizes the possibility of education, while Xunzi's "theory of sexual evil" emphasizes the necessity of education, they are just the same way, the purpose is the same. We will continue with the ethics of Mencius. Mencius took the "theory of sexual goodness" as the theoretical basis for people to cultivate morality and practice the king's way of benevolence, believing that the ethical and moral requirements such as benevolence, righteousness, etiquette, and wisdom originated from the nature of human beings and had ethical significance, while the "theory of sexual goodness" believed that through the study of everyone can become a gentleman like Yao Shun, and emphasized the possibility of education, which has great educational significance.
The second is Mencius's concept of governance, which can be summed up as: benevolence is invincible. The core keyword is "benevolence", Mencius inherited and developed Confucius's thought on the rule of virtue, developed into the doctrine of "benevolent government", and became the core of his governing philosophy. So what is "benevolence"? Mencius said that "the benevolent man loves others", and benevolence has the heart to love the person, and it is a kind of benevolent heart that develops human nature. Mencius believed that this is the most ideal kind of politics, if the ruler practices benevolent government, he can get the heartfelt support of the people; on the contrary, if he ignores the people's life and death and carries out abusive government, he will lose the people's hearts and become a one-man thief and be overthrown by the people.
Finally, there is the educational philosophy of Mencius, which can be summed up as: teaching according to aptitude. Adhering to the mantle of Confucius, Mencius was also a famous educator, who not only taught apprentices and taught, but also cultivated excellent students such as Le Zhengzi, Gongsun Ugly, and Wan Zhang, but also wrote books and lectures with his disciples. In terms of educational methods, Mencius inherited and developed Confucius's "teaching according to aptitude" and put forward the traditional education method of "teaching according to the child". What is Easy Son and Teach? One day, his student Gongsun Ugly asked the teacher why some gentlemen did not educate their sons themselves. Mencius said that due to the deep affection between father and son, the father's education of his son is often not strict, and some mistakes and faults of his son are also indulged because of coddling, so that correct education is difficult to carry out. Therefore, a gentleman cannot teach his children, but must let others educate, so that he can not only be strict, but also maintain the intimate relationship between father and son, and not hurt feelings.
Well, a brief introduction to Mencius's life and main ideas, the next article, I will share the wonderful content of Mencius article by article. Mencius is divided into seven parts, each of which is divided into upper and lower parts, so there are fourteen parts. The titles are: Liang Huiwang, Gongsun Ugly, Teng Wengong, Li Lou, Guanzhang, Zhizi, and Dedication.
Well, today's content is this, I will continue to share mencius's wonderful content later, if you like my article, please pay attention to the small broadcast reading, we will see the next article.