Mencius
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{{Infobox_Philosopher
|region = [[Chinese philosophy]]
|era = [[Ancient philosophy]]
|color = #B0C4DE
|image_name = Mencius - Project Gutenberg eText 15250.jpg
|name = Mencius [[Wiktionary:孟|孟]][[Wiktionary:子|子]]
|birth = [[372 BCE]]
|death = [[289 BCE]]
|school_tradition = [[Confucianism]]
|main_interests = [[Ethics]], [[Social philosophy]], [[Political philosophy]]
|influences = [[Confucius]]
|influenced = Nearly every [[Timeline of Eastern philosophers|Eastern philosopher]]
|notable_ideas = [[Confucianism]]
|image_caption = Mencius, from ''Myths and Legends of China'', [[1922]] by E. T. C. Werner
}}
{| class="infobox" style="border-color:#B0C4DE; width:26em; font-size:85%"
|-
|align="right"|'''[[Chinese name|Ancestral name]] (姓):'''||[[Ji (surname)|Ji]] ([[Chinese language|Chinese]]: 姬; [[Pinyin]]: Jī)
|-
|align="right"|'''[[Chinese surname|Clan name]] (氏):'''||[[Meng]] (Ch: 孟; Py: Mèng)<ref>The original clan name was Mengsun (孟孫), and was shortened into Meng (孟). It is unknown whether this occurred before or after Mencius's life.</ref>
|-
|align="right"|'''[[Chinese given name|Given name]] (名):'''||Ke (Ch: 軻; Py: Kē)
|-
|align="right"|'''[[Chinese courtesy name|Courtesy name]] (字):'''||Unknown<ref>Traditionally, his courtesy name was assumed to be Ziche (子車), sometimes incorrectly written as Ziyu (子輿) or Ziju (子居), but recent scholarly works show that these courtesy names appeared in the 3rd century CE and apply to another historical figure named Meng Ke who also lived in Chinese antiquity and was mistaken for Mencius.</ref>
|-
|align="right" nowrap="nowrap"|'''[[Posthumous name]] (謚):'''||Master Meng the Second Sage<ref>That is, the second sage after [[Confucius]]. Name given in 1530 by [[Jiajing|Emperor Jiajing]]. In the two centuries before 1530, the posthumous name was "The Second Sage Duke of Zou" (鄒國亞聖公) which is still the name that can be seen carved in the Mencius ancestral temple in Zoucheng.</ref> (Ch: 亞聖孟子; Py: Yàshèng Mèngzǐ)
|-
|align="right"|'''Styled:'''||Master Meng<ref>[[Romanization|Romanized]] as Mencius.</ref> (Ch: [[Wiktionary:孟|孟]][[Wiktionary:子|子]]; Py: Mèngzǐ)
|}
'''Mencius''' ({{zh-cpw|c=[[wikt:孟|孟]][[wikt:子|子]]|p=Mèng Zǐ|w=Meng Tzu}}), most accepted dates: [[372 BC|372]] – [[289 BC|289]] [[BCE]]; other possible dates: [[385 BC|385]] – [[303 BC|303]]/[[302 BC|302]] BCE) was a [[Chinese philosophy|Chinese philosopher]] who was arguably the most famous [[Confucian]] after [[Confucius]] himself.
==Life==
Mencius, also known by his birth name ''Meng Ke'' or ''Ko'', was born in the [[Zhou Dynasty|State of Zhou]] ([[Wiktionary:周|周]][[Wiktionary:朝|朝]]; pinyin: zhōu cháo; Wade-Giles: chou ch`ao; 372BC to 289BC), now forming the territory of the [[county-level city]] of [[Zoucheng]] ([[Wiktionary:邹|邹]][[Wiktionary:城|城]]; originally Zouxian), [[Shandong]] province, only thirty kilometres (eighteen miles) south of [[Qufu]], [[Confucius]]' birthplace.
He was an itinerant [[China|Chinese]] [[philosopher]] and sage, and one of the principal interpreters of [[Confucianism]]. Supposedly, he was a pupil of Confucius' grandson, [[Zisi]]. Like Confucius, according to legend, he travelled China for forty years to offer advice to rulers for reform.<ref>Chan 1963: 49.</ref> He served as an official during the [[Warring States Period]] ([[403 BC|403]]–[[221 BC|221]] BCE) in the [[State of Qi]] ([[Wiktionary:齊|齊]]; pinyin: qí; 1046 BC to 221 BC) from [[319 BC|319]] to [[312 BC|312]] BCE. He expressed his [[filial piety|filial devotion]] when he took an absence of three years from his official duties for Qi to mourn his mother's death. Disappointed at his failure to effect changes in his contemporary world, he retired from public life.
===Mencius' mother===
The traditional Chinese [[four-character idiom]] [[Wiktionary:孟|孟]][[Wiktionary:母|母]][[Wiktionary:三|三]][[Wiktionary:遷 |遷 ]] ({{zh-p|p=mèng mǔ sān qiān}}; [[Zhuyin|Zhuyin/Bopomofo]]: ㄇㄥ ㄇㄨ ㄙㄢ ㄑ一ㄢ; [[Kana]]: もうぼさんせん; [[Hepburn romanization|Romaji]]: mou bo san sen; literal translation: Mencius' mother, three moves) refers to the legend that Mencius' mother moved their house three times—from beside a cemetery to beside a marketplace, to finally beside a school—before finding a location that she felt was suitable for his upbringing. As an expression, the idiom refers to the importance of a proper environment for the proper upbringing of children.
==Influence==
Mencius' interpretation of Confucianism has generally been considered the orthodox version by subsequent Chinese philosophers, especially the [[Neo-Confucian]]s of the [[Song dynasty]]. The ''Mencius'' (also spelled ''Mengzi'' or ''Meng-tzu''), a book of his conversations with kings of the time, is one of the [[Four Books]] that [[Zhu Xi]] grouped as the core of orthodox [[Neo-Confucianism|Neo-Confucian]] thought. In contrast to the sayings of Confucius which are short and self-contained, the ''Mencius'' consists of long dialogues, including arguments, with extensive prose.
==View on human nature==
While Confucius himself did not explicitly focus on the subject of human nature, Mencius asserted the innate goodness of the individual, believing that it was society's influence – its lack of a positive cultivating influence – that caused bad [[moral character]]. "He who exerts his mind to the utmost knows his nature"<ref>The ''Mencius'' 7:A1 in Chan 1963: 78.</ref> and "the way of learning is none other than finding the lost mind".<ref>The ''Mencius'' 6:A11 in Chan 1963: 58.</ref>
His translator [[James Legge]] finds a close similarity between Mencius' views on human nature and those in [[Joseph Butler|Bishop Butler]]'s ''Sermons on Human Nature''.
===The Four Beginnings===
To show innate goodness, Mencius used the example of a child falling down a well. Witnesses of this event immediately feel {{cquote|alarm and distress, not to gain friendship with the child's parents, nor to seek the praise of their neighbors and friends, nor because they dislike the reputation [of lack of humanity if they did not rescue the child]...
The feeling of commiseration is the beginning of humanity;
the feeling of shame and dislike is the beginning of righteousness;
the feeling of deference and compliance is the beginning of propriety;
and the feeling of right and wrong is the beginning of [[wisdom]].
Men have these Four Beginnings just as they have their four limbs. Having these Four Beginnings, but saying that they cannot develop them is to destroy themselves.<ref>The ''Mencius'' 2A:6 in Chan 1963: 65. Formatting has been applied to ease readability.</ref>}}
==View on politics==
[[Image:Mencius.jpg|thumb|210px|right|[[Portrait painting]] of Mencius from the [[National Palace Museum]], [[Taipei]], [[Taiwan]].]]
Mencius spoke frequently and highly of the [[well-field system]].
Mencius emphasized the significance of the common citizens in the state. While Confucianism generally regards rulers highly, he argued that it is acceptable for the subjects to overthrow or even kill a ruler who ignores the people's needs and rules harshly. This is because a ruler who does not rule justly is no longer a true ruler. Speaking of the assassination of the wicked [[King Zhou of Shang]], Mencius said, "I have merely heard of killing a dictator Zhou, but I have not heard of murdering [him as] the ruler."<ref>The ''Mencius'' 1B:8 in Chan 1963: 62.</ref>.
==View on wars==
He said during the [[Spring and Autumn Period]], there's no [[Just war]].
==Comparisons to contemporaries==
His alleged years make him contemporary with [[Xun Zi]], [[Zhuangzi]], [[Gaozi]], and [[Plato]].
===Xun Zi===
[[Xun Zi]] was a Confucian who believed that human nature is originally evil, and the purpose of moral cultivation is to develop our nature into goodness. Obviously, Mencius was at odds with him. His views were declared as unorthodox by [[Zhu Xi]], and Mencius as orthodox.
===Plato===
Mencius is often compared to [[Plato]] for their theories on [[human nature]]. Both were [[idealism|idealists]] in that they believed in the innate moral goodness of all human beings.
Mencius' argument that unjust rulers may be overthrown is reminiscent of [[Socrates]]' argument in Book I of Plato's ''[[Republic (Plato)|Republic]]''.
== Notes and references==
<references/>
*Chan, Wing-tsit (translated and compiled). ''A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy''. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963.
*Graham, A.C., ''Disputers of the TAO: Philosophical Argument in Ancient China'' (Open Court 1993). ISBN 0-8126-9087-7
== External links ==
<div class="infobox sisterproject">[[Image:Wikisource-logo.svg|left|50px| ]]
<div style="margin-left: 60px;">Original works by Mencius in [[Chinese language|Chinese]] at Chinese [[Wikisource]] ([[s:zh:首頁|維基文庫]]) :
<div style="margin-left: 10px;">'''[[s:zh:孟子|孟子]]'''</div>
</div>
</div>
{{ChineseText}}
*[http://nothingistic.org/library/mencius English Translation of the ''Mencius'' with comments by James Legge]
*[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mencius/ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry]
*{{gutenberg author| id=Mencius | name=Mencius}}
{{Four Books and Five Classics}}
[[Category:372 BC births]]
[[Category:289 BC deaths]]
[[Category:Chinese philosophers]]
[[Category:Confucian texts]]
[[Category:Confucianism]]
[[Category:Chinese Confucianists]]
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