Mencius
Cultivate the sprouts of goodness that every heart already holds.
Mencius, born Meng Ke in the small state of Zou, was the most influential Confucian thinker of the Warring States period after Confucius himself. Travelling between royal courts with his disciples, he argued that human nature is good because every heart holds sprouts of compassion, shame, deference and moral judgment, and that rulers who secure their people’s livelihood and cultivate their virtue win the mandate of Heaven.
Is goodness part of human nature, and what must a ruler do to let it grow?
The essentials
A life in dates
Biography- −372Birth in Zou
- −320At the court of Liang
- −289Death
- 1190The Four Books
- 1394An abridged Mencius
Biography
Mencius, born Meng Ke in the small state of Zou, was the most influential Confucian thinker of the Warring States period after Confucius himself. Travelling between royal courts with his disciples, he argued that human nature is good because every heart holds sprouts of compassion, shame, deference and moral judgment, and that rulers who secure their people’s livelihood and cultivate their virtue win the mandate of Heaven.
Philosophy
Mencius holds that every heart has four sprouts (duan): compassion, shame, deference and the sense of right and wrong. Cultivated, they grow into benevolence, righteousness, ritual propriety and wisdom, as surely as a seed grows when it is tended.
Reading guides
Original introductions to enter the works, discover their central questions and take the reflection further.
Bibliography
Works, testimonies and further readings are distinguished. Dates refer to composition or first publication, as specified in each entry.
Who came before, who came after.
Above the timeline, each solid arc marks a documented reading, back in time or forward; dotted arcs pair kindred questions.
Read and answered1
Read by1
Kindred questions2
A first reading.
Sprouts of virtue, duties of kings
Follow Mencius from his audience with King Hui to the child at the well and Ox Mountain, and see how one account of human nature supports a demanding politics.
The Book of MenciusReading Mencius with Zhu Xi
See how Zhu Xi’s commentary turned the Mencius into a core text of Neo-Confucian learning and recast its sprouts and its human nature in terms of principle and qi.
Zhu Xi’s Collected Commentaries on the MenciusGood or bad by nature: Xunzi’s challenge
Read Xunzi’s chapter against Mencius and weigh two Confucian accounts of how people become good: by developing what is innate or by reshaping it through ritual and teachers.
Xunzi’s Reply: Human Nature Is BadLinked thinkers
- Read and answered
- Read by
- Kindred questions