Confucian tradition · c. 372 – c. 289 BCE
Mencius
Cultivate the sprouts of goodness that every heart already holds.
State of Zou · ancient China
Reading guides
A thread to guide your reading.
Original introductions to enter the works, discover their central questions and take the reflection further.
A place to begin
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 MenciusGoing further
Reading 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 MenciusGoing further
Good 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 BadContinue
Linked thinkers
- Read and answered
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- Kindred questions