Mencius said: "The vast land and the people, the gentleman desires them, but his pleasure does not exist; when he stands in the middle of the world, and the people of the four seas are settled, the gentleman enjoys them, but his nature does not exist." ("Mencius· If a person is filled with the desire of "a vast land and many people", he will naturally not be happy; the satisfaction and happiness gained from political pursuits, although free from the external achievements of owning a vast land and many people, are still To stabilize the world as a moral and political ideal is not in line with human nature of "benevolence, justice, propriety and wisdom". It can be seen that the "gentleman's happiness" in Mencius' ideal is not fundamentally limited to the satisfaction of "happiness", but rather transcends "happiness"; and when talking about "the gentleman has three kinds of happiness", he believes that "the king This is extremely normal. The happiness of a gentleman who "enjoys himself and forgets the world". Although Mencius expressed his appreciation for "Yanzi lived in a shady alley in troubled times, eating from a basket and drinking from a ladle. People could not bear his worries, but Yanzi did not change his joy" ("Mencius Li Louxia"), but his so-called "gentleman" There is a slight difference between the "pleasure of a gentleman" and the "pleasure of a gentleman" mentioned by Confucius and Yan Hui (from which the Song Dynasty people derived the theory of "the happy place of Confucius and Yan"). Confucius' "gentleman's happiness" mainly refers to the highest happiness obtained by transcending material desires, getting rid of the fetters of fame, and realizing the liberation of body and mind and the harmony of soul.

Source: Chinese Culture