Mencius’s ideological proposition: Politically, Mencius advocated the rule of law before the king and benevolent government; theoretically, he admired Confucius and opposed Yang Zhu and Mo Zhai.

Mencius inherited and developed Confucius' thoughts, but compared with Confucius' thoughts, he added his own understanding of Confucianism. He advocated benevolent government and put forward the people-oriented thought of "the people are more important than the emperor". He traveled to Qi, Song, Teng, Wei, Lu and other countries, hoping to follow Confucius's example and implement his own political ideas. This lasted for more than 20 years.

However, Mencius's theory of benevolent government was considered to be far-reaching and broad-minded, and was not implemented. In the end, he retired to give lectures, and together with his students, he prefaced "Poems" and "Books", described the meaning of Zhongni (that is, Confucius), and wrote seven chapters of "Mencius".

Extended information:

Mencius was a famous philosopher, thinker, politician, and educator during the Warring States Period. He was one of the representatives of the Confucian school. His status was second only to Confucius and equal to Confucius. Called "Confucius and Mencius". He promoted "benevolent government" and was the first to put forward the idea of ??"the people are more important than the monarch".

Mencius is one of the most important representatives of Confucianism, and is called the "Less Sage" by later generations.

The book "Mencius" was considered to be the "biography" of the auxiliary "Book of Confucius" in the Han Dynasty, alongside Confucius's "The Analects of Confucius".

Mencius's articles are fluent in reasoning, full of momentum and good at argumentation, strict in logic, sharp and witty, and represent the highest peak of traditional prose writing. Mencius proposed the theory of good nature on the issue of human nature, that is, human nature is good.

Baidu Encyclopedia——Mencius