There are two opinions about the date of birth and death of Mencius:

First, it is believed that Mencius was born in the seventeenth year of King Zhou An (385 BC) and died in the eleventh year of Zhou Nanwang (34 BC);

Second, Mencius was born in the fourth year of King Lie of Zhou (372 BC) and died in the twenty-sixth year of Zhou Nanwang (289 BC).

Mencius' ancestor was Meng Sun Shi, an aristocrat of Lu, and later his family declined and moved from Lu to Zou. When he lost his father at the age of three, Meng Mu brought him up, and Meng Mu's godson was very strict. His godson stories such as "moving to another place to teach his son" and "breaking the loom" have become beautiful stories throughout the ages. There is a saying in San Zi Jing that "Meng Mu used to choose a neighbor".

Mencius learned from Zi Si, but admired Confucius, thinking that "since the birth of the people, it has never flourished in Confucius".

Mencius traveled around Qi, Jin, Song, Xue, Lu, Teng and Liang to lobby his thoughts of "benevolent governance" and "kingliness". However, because the vassal countries were busy with the war at that time, almost no one adopted his thought of governing the country.

Mencius is one of the most important representatives of Confucianism in China, and his thoughts have a great influence on later generations.

But his position was not very high before the Song Dynasty. Since Han Yu's Original Tao listed Mencius as the only figure in pre-Qin Confucianism who inherited Confucius' "orthodoxy", a "upgrading movement" of Mencius appeared, and Mencius' status was gradually improved. In the fourth year of Xining in northern Song Shenzong (171), Mencius was listed as one of the subjects of imperial examinations for the first time, and then it was upgraded to a Confucian classic. Zhu Xi in the Southern Song Dynasty combined it with The Analects of Confucius, The University and The Doctrine of the Mean into four books. From the Yuan Dynasty to the first year of Shun Dynasty (133), Mencius was named "Asian Saint" and later called "Asian Saint", ranking second only to Confucius. His thoughts and Confucius' thoughts are collectively called "The Way of Confucius and Mencius".