Mencius said: "Everyone has an intolerable heart. The ancient kings had an intolerable heart, and now they have an intolerable government. With an intolerable heart, they implement an intolerable government and govern the world with the palm of their hands." "Obviously, this kind of "intolerable government" carried out "with a heart of intolerance" is "benevolent government." Benevolent government is the result of the externalization of "unbearable heart". When the king's "unbearable heart" is amplified and applied to the entire society, this "unbearable heart" becomes "benevolent government." 1. Mencius’ thoughts on benevolent government (1) Mencius’ thoughts on benevolent government attach great importance to the people. Mencius_: “If you have a world and lose the people, you will lose the world; if you don’t have a world, if you have people, you will gain the world.” This sentence is called “protect the people.” And the king”. But how can we gain the support of the people? Mencius believed that the key was to win the hearts and minds of the people. He said: "There is a way to win the people and win their hearts." This is what later generations called "the world belongs to those who win the hearts and minds of the people." At the same time, Mencius also summed up historical experience from the perspective of sympathizing with the lower class people and criticizing the social reality at that time: "When Jie and Zhou lost the world, they also lost their people; those who lost their people also lost their hearts. There is a way to win the world: to win it. To win the people, you have the right to win the world; to win their people, you have the right way to win them; to win their hearts, you have the right way: to gather with them what you want, and do not do to them what you do wrong. The people are benevolent, just like water. Just go down and the beast will go away." In other words, the support of the people is the basis for gaining political power and social stability. Therefore, Mencius proposed: "The people are the most noble, the country is second, and the king is the least. Therefore, the people are the emperor, the emperor is the princes, and the princes are the officials. When the princes threaten the country, they will change their positions. After the sacrifice is completed, the emperor will be the emperor. When it is prosperous and clean, sacrifices are made in due time, but when there is drought and water overflow, it becomes the state. "The "people" mentioned by Mencius here are ordinary people who are not in official positions as opposed to the superiors. In an era when the traditional concept of the supremacy of monarchy was deeply rooted, Mencius was able to put forward the slogan "the people value the monarch" from the standpoint of the "small people", which is bound to be progressive. Mencius also pointed out that we should enjoy ourselves with the people. He said: "It is wrong to serve the people and not enjoy themselves with the people. Those who enjoy the happiness of the people will also enjoy the happiness of the people; those who care about the people will also worry about the people; those who are happy with the world will also be worried about the people. There is no king in the world. "Mencius' requirement that the king enjoys happiness with the people is actually a restriction on the king's decadent life, thereby easing the increasingly acute class contradictions.

Source: Youth and Society