In the Confucius Temple (or Confucian Temple) in the old society of China, most of the worshippers were Yan Yuan, Zeng Shen, Zi Si and Monk, among whom Yan Yuan and Zi Si lived on the right side of Confucius, while Zeng Shen and Monk lived on the left side of Confucius, which was called four matches. Then why did Zhu Yuanzhang so angrily clear Mencius out of the four?
First of all, we should dig out the reasons from Zhu Yuanzhang. In Zhu Yuanzhang's political career, he sometimes used Buddhism and Taoism etiquette, sometimes killed monks and Taoist priests, and Confucianism. Although he often curses legalists such as Han Feizi and Li Si, the essence of Zhu Yuanzhang's thought of governing the country is related to legalists. Such contradictory personality is the foreshadowing of his rage. Zhu Yuanzhang was respectful to Confucius at first.
On the other hand, Mencius' thought is also the cause of the incident. Among the ancient thinkers in China, people-oriented thought is the most prominent in Mencius. Even today, we can blurt out the sentence "people are the most important, the country is the second, and the monarch is the light" in Mencius. Mencius believed that "protecting the people is king, and there is no resistance", that is to say, the land, the people and the government are the three treasures of the country, and whoever can protect the people can be king. In other words, if you kill someone, you don't deserve the world. Even if you do, you should be overthrown. To overthrow such a monarch is an innocent rebellion. This thought obviously reflects another view of Mencius-he does not advocate that all people in the world are loyal to one surname.
Mencius put forward that "the monarch takes the minister as his brother, then the minister takes the monarch as his heart;" If you treat me like a dog or a horse, then I will treat you like a Chinese; If you treat me like dirt, then I treat you like an enemy. "
In other words, Mencius believed that the relationship between monarch and minister was relative and there was no absolute authority of the emperor. This view has essentially touched the minefield of Zhu Yuanzhang as the emperor.
In addition, in the part of Mencius' thought about "how to win the hearts of the people", it is mentioned that only by convincing people with virtue can they win the hearts of the people, and convincing people with strength is a tyrant's overbearing behavior. Persuading people by force is also very easy to lead to war, and the displaced people in the war are ruthless.