MENCIUS

Mencius was an early Chinese philosopher who developed orthodox Confucianism and thereby earnedthe title “second sage.”

Of noble origin, the Meng family settled in Zou, a minor state in the present province of Shantung. Mencius was born there about 372 BCE. Like Confucius, Mencius was only three when he lost his father. As a young scholar Mencius had for his mentor a pupil of Zisi, who was himself the grandson of Confucius. In due time Mencius became a teacher himself and for a brief period served as an official in the state of Qi. He spent much time travelling, offering his advice and counsel to the various princes on government by ren (“human-heartedness”), or humane government. The effort was doomed, however, because the times were chaotic and the contending princes were interested not in humane government but in power.

DOCTRINE OF HUMAN NATURE

The philosophical ideas of Mencius might be regarded as an amplification of the teachings of Confucius. Confucius taught the concept of ren, love or human-heartedness, as the basic virtue of manhood. Mencius made the original goodness of human nature (xing) the keynote to his system. That the four beginnings (siduan)—the feeling of commiseration, the feeling of shame, the feeling of courtesy, and the feeling of right and wrong—are all inborn in humans was a self-evident truth to Mencius; and the “four beginnings,” when properly cultivated, will develop into the four cardinal virtues of ren, righteousness (yi), decorum (li), and wisdom (zhi). 

This doctrine of the goodness of human nature on the part of Mencius has become an enduring topic for debate among the Chinese thinkers throughout the ages.Mencius went further and taught that humans possess intuitive knowledge and intuitive ability and that personal cultivation consisted in developing one’s mind. Mencius said: “Persons who have developed their hearts and minds to the utmost, know their nature. Knowing their nature, they know Heaven.” Hence, all people can become like the great sage-kings Yao and Shun, the legendary heroes of the archaic past, according to Mencius.

While Mencius has always been regarded as a major philosopher, special importance was attributed to him and his work by the neo-Confucians of the Song dynasty (960–1279). For the last 1,000 years, Mencius has been revered among the Chinese people as the co-founder of Confucianism, second only to Confucius himself.