His representative works include "The Fish I Want", "The Right One Gets Many Helps, The Undead Get Few Helps" and "Born in Worry, Dies in Peace", and "What a Single Man Does to the Country" is included in high school Chinese textbooks.

Mencius (one of the representative figures of Confucianism)

Mencius, surnamed Ji, Meng family, given name Ke, styled Ziyu, was born in Zoucheng (now Zoucheng, Shandong) during the Warring States Period. A great thinker, educator and representative of the Confucian school, he is also known as "Confucius and Mencius" together with Confucius.

Han Yu's "Yuan Dao" listed Mencius as the figure who inherited Confucius' "Taoism" among the pre-Qin Confucians. The Yuan Dynasty named Mencius "Ya Sheng Gong" and honored him as "Ya Sheng". His disciples and subsequent disciples Mencius's words and deeds are compiled into the book "Mencius", which is a collection of quotation prose. It is a collection of Mencius's remarks. It was compiled by Mencius and his disciple ***, and advocates "benevolence-based".

Character Evaluation

Mencius is one of the most important representatives of Confucianism.

Mencius is a famous thinker, educator and politician in ancient China. He was a representative figure of Confucianism during the Warring States Period, a fourth-generation disciple of Confucius, and a secondary disciple of Zeng Zi. He inherited and carried forward Confucius' thoughts. Confucius was the greatest sage, and Mencius was called the lesser sage. Mencius and Confucius are collectively called the Way of Confucius and Mencius, and most people call it "the Way of Confucius and Mencius".

Mencius once imitated Confucius and led his disciples to travel around various countries, but he was not accepted by various countries at that time. He then retired and wrote books with his disciples. The remarks of Mencius and his disciples are compiled in the book "Mencius", which is one of the classic works of Confucianism.

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. However, Mencius only said that nature is good. Zhu Xi of the Southern Song Dynasty added that "in the beginning of man's nature, nature is good." Later scholars proposed that "nature is good."

Historical status

Status established

Mencius is one of the most important representatives of Confucianism, and is called the "Senior Sage" by later generations. But Mencius's status was not very high before the Song Dynasty. There is a limerick that satirizes Mencius: "How can a beggar have two wives? How can there be many chickens in the neighbor's house? At that time, there was an emperor of Zhou, why are you talking about Wei Qi?" Han Yu of the mid-Tang Dynasty wrote "Yuan Dao", which listed Mencius as a pre-Qin emperor. Beginning with the emergence of Mencius, the only person among Confucians who inherited Confucius' "Taoism", there was an "upgrade movement", and the status of Mencius as a person and his books gradually rose. In the fourth year of Xining reign of Song Shenzong (1071), the book "Mencius" was included in the imperial examination subjects for the first time. In the sixth year of Yuanfeng (1083), Mencius was officially posthumously named "Zou Guogong" for the first time, and the following year he was approved to enjoy the Confucius Temple. Later, "Mencius" was upgraded to a Confucian classic. Zhu Xi of the Southern Song Dynasty combined "Mencius" with "The Analects of Confucius", "Great Learning", and "The Doctrine of the Mean" into the "Four Books", and its actual status is even higher than the "Five Classics".

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". By the Five Dynasties, Meng Chang, the lord of Later Shu, ordered the "Yi", "Book", "Poetry", "Li", "Zhou Li", "Yi Ji", "Gongyang Zhuan", "Gu Liang Zhuan", "Zuo Zhuan", "The Analects of Confucius" and "Mencius" The Eleven Classics are written on stone. "Great Learning" and "The Doctrine of the Mean" are considered to be the works of Confucius's disciple Zeng Shen and Confucius' grandson Si. In this way, "Mencius" is on an equal footing with the works of Confucius and Confucius' direct descendants, and its actual status is even higher than the "Five Classics".

In the first year of Zhishun of the Yuan Dynasty (1330), Mencius was named "Ya Sheng Gong", and he was later called "Ya Sheng", his status was second only to Confucius.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, official regulations stipulated that the eight-legged essay questions in the imperial examination must be selected from the "Four Books" and must "stand for the saints." As a result, "Mencius" became one of the must-read books for scholars in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Posthumous titles and titles

Posthumous titles for emperors in dynasties

Zou Guogong, Shenzong of the Song Dynasty, in the sixth year of Yuanfeng in the Song Dynasty (1083)

Yuan Dynasty In the first year of Zhishun (1330), Emperor Wenzong of the Yuan Dynasty Zou Guoya Shenggong

In the ninth year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (1530), Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty was regarded as the Yasheng and dismissed as a duke.

In the second year of Jingtai in the Ming Dynasty, a direct descendant of Mencius was awarded the title of Doctor of the Five Classics of the Hanlin Academy, and his descendants inherited it hereditary.

In the third year of the Republic of China, Meng Qingtang, the 73rd generation doctor of the Five Classics of the Hanlin Academy, was renamed the sacrificial officer.

In the 24th year of the Republic of China, he was renamed the Yasheng sacrificial officer.