The Works of Mencius

Who is Mencius? (c. 372—289 B.C.E.)

Mencius was a Chinese thinker and a philosopher who contribute philosophical thoughts
and principles in China inspired by Confucius.
“Mencius” is a Latinization (coined by Jesuit missionaries in the 17th century) of the
Chinese “Mengzi,” meaning Master Meng. His full name was Meng Ke.
Mencius was a Confucian philosopher during The Warring States Period in China (c.
481-221 BCE) and is considered the greatest after Confucius himself for his interpretation,
formulation, and dissemination of Confucian concepts. Earned the title as being the “second
sage” among the 5 great sages.
Early life
The Meng family settled in the state of Zou, a minor state in the present province
of Shantung. Mencius was born there about 372 BCE. In several respects his life was similar to
that of Confucius. Zou and Lu (the state of Confucius’ origin) were adjacent states. Like
Confucius, Mencius was only three when he lost his father. Mencius’ mother paid special
attention to the upbringing of her young son. A traditional story tells of her moving their home
several times and finally settling near a school, so that the boy should have the right kind of
environmental influence, and of her encouraging her son to persevere in his studies. Among the
Chinese, the mother of Mencius named Zhang, has been for ages upheld as the model mother.
As a young scholar Mencius had for his mentor a pupil of Zisi, who was himself the
grandson of Confucius.
He spent much time traveling, offering his advice and counsel to the various princes on
government by ren (“human-heartedness”), or humane government.
Mencius’ preachments to the princes on virtuous personal conduct and humane
government fell on deaf ears; yet he continued to speak his mind, even though he knew that he
was championing an unpopular cause.

Mencius: Works, Philosophy, and Contributions.

Book: Mencius
• The book Mencius records his doings and sayings and contains statements on the
goodness of human nature, a topic warmly debated by Confucianists up to modern times.
• The text records several encounters with various rulers during Mencius’ old age,
which can be dated between 323 and 314 BCE, making Mencius an active figure no later
than the late fourth century BCE.
• The text of the Mencius claims to record Mencius’ teachings to his disciples as
well as his dialogues with the philosophers and rulers of his day.
Mencius’ philosophical concerns can be categorized into four groups:

1. Theodicy
2. Government
3. Human Nature
4. Self-Cultivation
Theodicy
From late Zhou tradition, Mencius inherited a great many religious sensibilities,
including theistic ones. For the early Chinese (c. 16th century BCE), the world was
controlled by an all-powerful deity, “The Lord on High” (Shangdi), to whom entreaties
were made in the first known Chinese texts.

Zhou apologists began to regard their deity, Tian (“Sky” or “Heaven”) as

synonymous with Shangdi, the deity of the deposed Shang kings, and explained the
decline of Shang and the rise of Zhou.
The Mandate of Heaven was a concept developed during the Zhou Dynasty which
maintained that a king ruled by divine consent. The gods and the monarch entered into a
contract where the ruler would care for the people, putting their interests above his own,
and his dynasty would continue to rule as long as they followed suit. When it became
apparent that a dynasty was no longer honoring their part of the contract, they were
thought to have lost the mandate and were replaced. Mencius simply took this concept
and developed it further.
Government
The dependence of Tian upon human agents to put its will into practice helps
account for the emphasis Mencius places on the satisfaction of the people as an indicator
of the ruler’s moral right to power, and on the responsibility of morally-minded ministers
to depose an unworthy ruler. 
The ruler should provide welfare for his people with 2 respects:

1. material conditions for livelihood.

2. moral and educational guidance for edification.
 Human Nature
Mencius is most famous for his theory of human nature, according to which all
human beings share an innate goodness that either can be cultivated through education
and self-discipline or squandered through neglect and negative influences, but never lost
altogether. He taught that human nature is good and we should develop the heart,
growing the four virtues through love.  He argued that because the human individual is
essentially good, we need ritual to guide our growth but love is the true essence. One can
see his argument as having three elements: (1) a teleology, (2) a virtue theory, and (3) a
moral psychology.
Mencius theory about human nature is good was argued by Xunzi saying human
nature is evil.
a.) Teleology
Mencius’ basic assertion is that “everyone has a heart-mind which feels for
others.” As evidence, he makes two appeals: to experience, and to reason. Appealing to
experience, he says:
Supposing people see a child fall into a well – they all have a heart-mind that is
shocked and sympathetic. It is not for the sake of being on good terms with the child’s
parents, and it is not for the sake of winning praise for neighbors and friends, nor is it
because they dislike the child’s noisy cry.
Going further and appealing to reason, Mencius argues:
Judging by this, without a heart-mind that sympathizes one is not human; without
a heart-mind aware of shame, one is not human; without a heart-mind that defers to
others, one is not human; and without a heart-mind that approves and condemns, one is
not human.
b. Virtue Theory
Mencius goes further and identifies the four basic qualities of the heart-mind
(sympathy, shame, deference, judgment) not only as distinguishing characteristics of
human beings – what makes the human being qua human being really human – but also
as the “sprouts” (duan) of the four cardinal virtues:
● A heart-mind that sympathizes is the sprout of co-humanity [ren]
● A heart-mind that is aware of shame is the sprout of rightness [yi]
● A heart-mind that defers to others is the sprout of ritual propriety [li]
● A heart-mind that approves and condemns is the sprout of wisdom [zhi]
Confucius maintained there were Five Constants and Four Virtues one
should adhere to in order to live well and become a superior human being:
Ren – benevolence
Yi – righteousness
Li – ritual
Zhi – knowledge
Xin – integrity
Xiao – filial piety
Zhong – loyalty
Jie – contingency
Yi – justice/righteousness
Mencius recognized the value of all nine but emphasized four virtues as
essential:

Ren – benevolence/humaneness
Yi – righteousness/goodness
Zhi – knowledge/wisdom
Li – propriety/proper ritual

These are the famous Four Seeds of Mencius, so-called because he believed they
were inherent in each individual and only needed proper nurture in order to sprout and
bloom.
Moral Psychology
The primary function of Mencius’ moral psychology is to explain how moral
failure is possible and how it can be avoided.
For Mencius, moral failure is the failure to develop one’s xin (heart-mind). In
order to account for the moral mechanics of the xin, Mencius offers a quasi-physiological
theory involving qi (vital energy) – “a hard thing to speak about”, part vapor, part fluid,
found in the atmosphere and in the human body, that regulates affective-cognitive
processes as well as one’s general well-being.
Both biology and culture are important for Mencian self-cultivation, and so
is Tian. “By fully developing one’s heart-mind, one knows one’s nature, and by knowing
one’s nature, one knows Heaven.” One cannot help but begin with “a heart-mind that
feels for others,” but the journey toward full humanity is hardly complete without having
taken any steps beyond one’s birth. 
Important Notes!
Guided by the examples of ancient sages and the ritual forms and texts they have
left behind, one starts to develop one’s heart-mind further by nurturing its qi through
habitually doing what is right, cultivating its “sprouts” into virtues, and bringing oneself
up and out from the merely human to that which Tian intends for one, which is to become
a sage. Nature is crucial, but so is nurture. Mencius’ model of moral psychology is both a
“discovery” model (human nature is good) and a “development” model (human nature
can be made even better)
Mencius Contributions:
Mencius’ major contributions to Confucian thought are the developments of the
inherent goodness of human beings, the Four Seeds concept, adherence to the Confucian
'silver rule' – "whatsoever you do not want done to you, do not do that to another" – and
the establishment of a moral and benevolent government which would encourage its
citizens to pursue virtue over vice.
Mencius devoted himself to streamlining Confucian thought and making it more
accessible to people.