The famous sayings of Mencius are collected from the Confucian classics The Book of Songs, The Analects of Confucius, Mencius, Xunzi, The Book of Rites and Zuo Zhuan.

Mencius is a classic work of Confucianism, written by Mencius and his disciples Zhang Wan and Gongsun Chou in the middle of the Warring States Period. It was first seen in Zhao Qi's Inscription of Mencius: "This book is also written by Mencius, so it is always called Mencius". Mencius was listed as "Four Books" by Zhu Xi in the Southern Song Dynasty (the other three books were University, The Doctrine of the Mean and The Analects of Confucius).

The Records of Han Yi Wen recorded eleven pieces of Mencius, and there are seven existing articles and fourteen volumes. The total number of words is more than 35 thousand words and 26 chapters. According to legend, there are four other books of Mencius, which have been lost (this book of Mencius is a fake by Yao Shizhen in Ming Dynasty). The book records the political, educational, philosophical and ethical ideas and political activities of Mencius and his disciples. The ancient examinations were mainly about the Four Books and the Five Classics

Author's brief introduction:

Mencius (about 372 BC-289 BC), with an unknown name (Zi Yu, Zi Ju, etc. were all made up by false books or later generations), was a native of Zou, Lu (now Zoucheng, Shandong) in the middle of the Warring States Period, and was far from Confucius' hometown.

Mencius is a famous thinker, politician, educator, the successor of Confucius' theory and an important representative of Confucianism. According to legend, Mencius is a descendant of Meng Sun Shi, an aristocrat of Lu. He lost his father in his childhood and his family was poor. He was once a disciple of Zisi (Kong Ji, the grandson of Confucius).

after he completed his studies, he lobbied the governors as a scholar in an attempt to promote his own political opinions, and went to Liang (Wei), Qi, Song, Teng and Lu. At that time, several great powers were committed to the rich country of Qiang Bing, striving for reunification by force. He inherited Confucius' idea of benevolence and developed it into the idea of benevolent government, which was called "Yasheng".