Portrait of Mencius
Mencius' rejection of Xu Xing is also Mencius' criticism of Xu Xing, and he disapproves of Xu Xing's proposition. Xu Xing was a representative of the agricultural school in the Warring States Period. He lived in the same era as Mencius. We mainly study an article by Mencius: Mencius? In Teng Wengong, we can learn about Xu Xing's deeds. There are sentences such as "Teng Li Chu" and "a man with a strange tongue", which shows that Xu Xing is a native of Chu. According to legend, Xu Hang has more than a dozen students. The clothes they wear are very shabby. They are all coarse clothes, and they all make a living by weaving mats and selling shoes. Xu Hang and his students came to a place called Tengguo. They don't want to be high officials. They just want to get a piece of land and an ordinary house, so that they can live in agriculture for a long time. At that time, Xu Xing's thought was still very influential, and some Confucian scholars turned to Xu Xingmen to study his theory.
From Mencius? As can be seen from the article "On Teng Wengong", Xu Xing's proposition has two main points. First, talented people should work and eat with ordinary people. Second, commodity prices in China should be unified, and we can't cheat each other. From this perspective, he admired Yao Shun, the ancient sage of the Duke of Zhou, and advocated imitating him. As we mentioned earlier, the story called Mencius reprimanded Xu Xing, so Mencius disagreed with Xu Xing's point of view. Mencius believes that everyone's identity is different and the division of labor is different. It is very reasonable for mental workers to lead and rule manual workers. Mencius also believed that no matter what school of academic thought, it should develop forward. It is better to retreat than to blindly respect the past. Mencius quoted many vivid metaphors as arguments to refute Xu Xing's point of view, which is wonderful.
Introduction of Mencius Speaking of Mencius, I believe everyone is familiar with it, even many foreigners are familiar with it. Mencius was a famous figure in the Warring States period, and his thoughts and political influence were far-reaching. He is a respected scholar, a great thinker and political scientist, and also a representative of Confucian school. Mencius was born in 372 BC, and his ancestral home is Zou, which is today's Zoucheng, Shandong.
Portrait of Mencius
Speaking of Mencius, everyone will definitely think of another sage, that is Confucius. In fact, although Confucius is often mentioned, the distance between Mencius and Confucius is about 100 years old. We know from historical documents that Mencius was born in a civilian family, but he was a real noble descendant. Although he lost his father in his early years and his family was very poor, he was still diligent and eager to learn, so that he became a great thinker admired by later generations. Many of Mencius' theories are influenced by Confucianism, and he is the most representative figure in Confucianism.
Mencius advocated benevolent governance all his life. During the Warring States period, he traveled around the world. Although it has not been adopted by various countries, it still has a great influence on future generations. After Mencius advocated political failure, he began to settle for second best and began to give lectures and teach students. He once wrote seven world-famous Mencius, and of course there are many works that we are all familiar with. Among them, what we are familiar with is "getting the Tao".
Mencius famous sayings In our life, there are many famous aphorisms. Whenever you encounter setbacks, perhaps it is these famous aphorisms that make you overcome difficulties and inspire you to move forward. Life is just a mood, a goal and a dream. We can also see these from many famous sayings. Then, as a saint in China's Millennium culture, what famous sayings are inspiring us?
Portrait of Mencius
Everything is in a dilemma. "You can't have your cake and eat it" is a philosophy and an important famous saying of Mencius. This is Mencius' exposition of life and benevolence, saying that life is precious, but for the sake of benevolence in people's hearts, one can give up one's life at a critical time. In fact, from this sentence, we can also see some views of Mencius on the word benevolence.
There is a famous historical saying in Mencius' poem, "Born in sorrow, died in happiness", which is also a famous poem we learned from Chinese textbooks. This sentence has alerted many people and made people clearly realize that no matter what kind of environment they are in, they should have a sense of urgency, and they should not be immersed in pleasure every day, especially those with heavy burdens, and they should not relax themselves in order to have their own place in the fierce and complicated society.
If we describe a person who is confused by the current illusion or local phenomenon, so that he can't recognize the most fundamental side of a thing, will we think of a famous historical saying, "One leaf can't see Mount Tai" at this time? In fact, this famous saying is also an idiom story, which was also written by Mencius.
Throughout the vast history of thousands of years, we can find that Confucius and Mencius' thoughts have been deeply affecting us. They are all great thinkers and philosophers in ancient China. Their words and deeds and thoughts have had a profound impact on later generations, and their view of "benevolence" is still of great significance to us today.
Commemorative stamp of Confucius and Mencius portrait
Confucius' view of benevolence is a summary and development of his previous thought of benevolence. First of all, he regards "loving relatives" as the source of "benevolence". However, on the other hand, "benevolence" is defined as "love". Confucius' ethics of "benevolence" refers not only to individuals but also to "benevolence" in politics. Although Confucius was quite dissatisfied with Guan Zhong's etiquette, he criticized Guan Zhong from a political standpoint. This shows that Confucius has long raised the "small benevolence" in the personal sense from himself to the "big benevolence" in the national political level. Secondly, he pursues the ideological personality of the unity of benevolence and wisdom. His ideal personality is the virtue of the unity of benevolence and propriety. He believes that as a perfect ideal personality, in addition to benevolence, you should also have wisdom and courage.
Mencius' theory of "benevolence" takes "benevolence" as its theoretical core and "winning the hearts of the people" as its moral function theory. On the basis of inheriting Confucius' benevolence, he put forward a moral standard system with benevolence, righteousness, courtesy and wisdom as the main body. Secondly, Mencius also advocated "benevolent government for the people", hoping to give practical benefits to the people. From this aspect, it shows that Mencius attaches importance to the material needs of the people, which is somewhat progressive compared with Confucius.
Mencius' thought advocates that friends are no strangers to Mencius, whether from teaching textbooks or from classical Chinese stories. Today, let's learn about Mencius' thoughts. Strictly speaking, Mencius is a disciple of Confucius. Of course, as a disciple of Confucius, he also spread the essence of Confucianism.
Portrait of Mencius
As the main figure of Confucianism, Mencius' political thought and social status had far-reaching influence in the Warring States period. Mencius' most important influence at that time was his benevolent government thought. During the Warring States period, Mencius traveled around the world to lobby for his own ideas and opinions, which was of far-reaching significance to the war-torn era at that time.
Mencius had different thoughts on human nature, social outlook, benevolent government, etiquette, people-oriented and values. In terms of human nature, Mencius' thought advocates kindness to others, that everyone has his own innate moral quality, and requires people to pay more attention to introspection; From the social and political point of view, it is also benevolent, so the king must govern the country with benevolence and pay attention to the people's own wishes; In the people-oriented aspect, his thought is to attach importance to public opinion and advocate that those who win the hearts of the people win the world; In terms of values, we emphasize our words and deeds and advocate etiquette to restrain our words and deeds.
Mencius' hometown is now Shandong. He is the pride of China people and an example for people all over the world to learn from. His thoughts have influenced many people and countries in later generations. He spread Confucianism for a long time and promoted human progress and social development. The world called him "Yasheng" and built a "Yasheng Temple" for future generations to pay tribute to.