After Confucius, as one of the main representatives of Confucianism, the doctrines and views left by Mencius were also inherited by later generations. Because of the powerful role of Confucianism in education, some famous quotes from Mencius are also It has flowed into the homes of ordinary people. As time goes by, the interpretation of some of Mencius' famous sayings has also had multiple meanings. For example, there is this sentence in "Mencius: Li Lou Shang": There are three kinds of unfilial piety, and the greatest is not having children. ”

There are generally two views on the original meaning of this sentence. The first view is that Mencius’s sentence is to warn young people to carry on the family line, that is, having children is a way of filial piety; The viewpoint interprets "no descendants" as "no respect from descendants". After all, Confucius once said, "If you are old and do not die, you are a thief." People think that Mencius's move was to criticize bad virtues and set a good example for future generations. People who are not good role models.

Although I personally agree with the second statement, I always feel that the connotation of Mencius' "no descendants are great" does not stop there. Mencius derived "Shun does not tell". Yan Xiaoer felt that Mencius was using the example of "Shun took his wife without complaining" and "It is great to have no heirs" to emphasize the flexibility of a gentleman's actions and the principle of moral principles. Why do you say this? Please Continue to read below. 1. Two views on "having no offspring" in "There are three kinds of unfilial piety, and having no descendants is the greatest"

In "Mencius Li Lou Shang", the context of "There are three kinds of unfilial piety" is Like this:

Mencius said: “There are three types of unfilial piety, the greatest of which is not having offspring. If Shun married without telling him, he would have no heirs. A gentleman thinks it's better to complain. "

The straightforward translation of this sentence is that in the eyes of Mencius, "having no queen" is the most serious among the three most unfilial behaviors. Here Mencius also uses the holy king "Shun" as an example , pointed out that Shun married a wife without telling his parents in order to avoid "having no offspring". After all, Shun's parents had bad character and would prevent Shun from marrying a wife. Therefore, Mencius extended it and pointed out that if it were Shun's situation, Shun's "Not telling", in the eyes of a gentleman, can be regarded as telling the parents.

As for Mencius' "no descendants are great", some people think that Mencius's "nothing is great". "Queen" simply revolves around "having children". Therefore, many people use "having no offspring is great" as evidence to criticize the phenomenon of "blindly obeying parents and blindly seeking children" in feudal society. Some people also think that Mencius's words here "No descendants" actually refers to "no respect from descendants" and implies "a person's bad character." In other words, Mencius' "no descendants" means "unfilial" means "a person's bad character. "Cannot gain respect from future generations", this is the greatest unfilial piety towards parents.

Generally speaking, Yan Xiaoer is more in favor of the second view, because Mencius succeeded Confucius and even "proclaimed himself" as the successor of Confucius. Naturally, it is based on Confucius' thoughts and further developed on the basis of Confucius' thoughts. Confucius once angrily scolded "the old man who does not die is a thief". This is Confucius' criticism of behavior that is not in line with etiquette and will lead to future generations. The old people who are not influenced by others think that they are pests. Following Confucius's words, we can know that Confucius and Mencius should pay attention to "virtue" rather than "carrying on the family line" in a behavioral sense. 2. To avoid ". "No Queen", King Shun married without telling him, why did Mencius say that this was an act appreciated by a gentleman?

Even if the time is thousands of years apart, the problems people face in human nature are actually relatively similar. Some people simply think that To be kind to a person means to comply with that person and meet all the person's requirements. This is actually a kind of behavior that is almost "flattery" and does no good at all.

Similarly, when it comes to serving your parents. On the other hand, it would be a big problem if you just obey without any discrimination, not to mention that it is not good for the development of your parents' character and temperament, it may even harm innocent people. Take the "no offspring" discussed in this article. In ancient society, including modern times, how many parents used the idea of ??"having no offspring to be great" to force their children to have offspring, or even "beat the mandarin ducks with a stick"?

However, like Confucius, Yan Xiaoer believed that Mencius also believed it? He is also a sage who has a deep understanding of human nature. Therefore, it is not advisable to simply take the sentence "It is great to have no offspring" out of context and combine it with "Shun married without telling him, it is to have no offspring." A gentleman thinks that he should still sue." Yan Xiaoer saw Mencius's profound meaning.

We all know that Shun's parents had bad tempers and often designed to harm Shun, and Shun has been praised as a scholar in ancient my country for thousands of years. The representative of the "holy king" who has been in the family for a long time almost represents the ideal personality. From this point of view, King Shun will not care about his parents, but will practice filial piety in a "deep understanding of righteousness"

If a holy king like "Shun" failed to leave an heir because of his parents' malicious troubles, in terms of influence, a holy king like "Shun" would be reviled and disgusted by future generations who would understand the righteousness of "Shun". " On the basis of a deep understanding of the nature of his parents, he adopted the approach of "marrying without telling anyone" on the matter of "having no children", which shows the flexible style of a gentleman in doing things. You must know that "benevolence, justice, propriety, wisdom and trust are never the first thing in mind" "Simple, straight to the point", detours and flexibility are also one of the essential skills of a gentleman.

Here, judging from Shun's original intention of "not telling" and the actual situation of Shun's parents, a gentleman will not Sticking to the narrow understanding of "parents' orders", they would regard "Shun's refusal to tell" as "telling".

From this, it is not difficult to see that Mencius’s focus here is not whether people have offspring or not, but taking “having and raising offspring” as an example to tell the world that a virtuous gentleman will be very flexible in doing things and Pay attention to virtue. 3. Conclusion

To sum up, by combining the characteristics of Confucianism and Confucius and Mencius, as well as the school’s research on human nature and social etiquette, Yan Xiaoer believes that Mencius’ “no descendants are great” will definitely not Narrowly sticking to things like "parents' orders" such as "weddings and funerals" and "reproduction of offspring" emphasizes the principle and flexibility of "a gentleman's moral cultivation".

In other words, according to Mencius’ logic, Shun’s decision to marry without telling him was a kind of “flexibility”, while Shun’s “not telling” was regarded by the gentleman as “still a matter of course”, but in fact, it was the gentleman’s obedience to marry Shun. Shun's behavior was based on his original intention, and he recognized his "concealment" method to "preserve" his parents' reputation and benefit himself. This kind of "killing two birds with one stone" actually reflects the gentleman's efforts in principle and flexibility. You can think about whether this is true.

Note: This article is original and exclusively published by Yan Xiaoer Shuzhewen. Any infringements such as transfer and plagiarism will be investigated. The pictures in this article are from the Internet, and some materials are from the Internet and will be deleted (within two weeks). If you like it, please like and collect it.