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MENCIUS
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MENCIUS , the latinized See also:form of See also:Mang-tsze, " Mr Mang," or " Mang the philosopher," a See also:Chinese moral teacher whose name stands second only to that of See also:Confucius. His statue or spirit-tablet (as the See also:case may be) has occupied, in the temples of the See also:sage, since our 11th See also:century, a See also:place among " the four assessors," and since A.D. 1530 his See also:title has been " the philosopher Mang, sage of the second degree." The Mangs or Mang-suns had been in the See also:time of Confucius one of the three See also:great clans of L6 (all descended from the See also:marquis Hwan, 711–694 B.C.), which he had endeavoured to curb. Their See also:power had subsequently been broken, and the See also:branch to which Mencius belonged had settled in Tsau, a small adjacent principality, the name of which remains in Tsau hsien, a See also:district of Yenchau Shan-tung. A magnificent See also:temple to Mencius is the See also:chief attraction of the district See also:city. The large See also:marble statue of Mencius in the courtyard shows much See also:artistic skill, and gives the impression of a See also:man strong in See also:body and mind, thoughtful and fearless. His lineal representative lives in the city, and thousands of Mangs are to be. found in the neighbourhood. Mencius, who died in the See also:year 289 B.C., had lived to a great See also:age—some say to his eighty-See also:fourth year, placing his See also:birth in 372 B.C., and others to his ninety-seventh, placing it in 385. All that we are told of his See also:father is that he died in the third year of the See also:child, who was thus See also:left to the care of his See also:mother. Her virtues and dealings with her son were celebrated by a great writer in the 1st century before our era, and for two thousand years she has been the See also:model mother of See also:China. Mencius is more than See also:forty years old when he comes before us as a public See also:character. He must have spent much time in study, investigating questions as to the fundamental principles of morals and society, and brooding over the See also:condition of the See also:country. The See also:history, the See also:poetry, the institutions and the great men of the past had received his See also:attention. He intimates that he had been in communication with men who had been disciples of Confucius. That sage had become to him the chief of mortal men, the See also:object of his untiring admiration; and in the doctrines which he had taught Mencius recognized the truth for want of an appreciation of which the bonds of See also:order all See also:round him were being relaxed, and the See also:kingdom hastening to anarchy.
When he first comes forth from Tsau, he is accompanied by several eminent disciples. He had probably imitated Confucius in becoming the See also:master of a school, and encouraging the reso.t to it of inquiring minds that he might resolve their doubts and unfold to them the right methods of See also:government. One of his sayings is that it would. be a greater delight to the See also:superior man to get the youth of brightest promise around him and to See also:teach and See also:train them than to enjoy the revenues of the kingdom. His intercourse with his followers was not sb intimate as that of Confucius had been with the members of his selected circle; and, while he maintained his dignity among them, he was not able to secure from them the same See also:homage and reverent admiration.
More than a century had elapsed since the See also:death of Confucius, and during that See also:period the feudal kingdom of Chan had been showing more and more of the signs of See also:dissolution, and portentous errors that threatened to upset all social order were widely disseminated. The sentiment of See also:loyalty to the See also:dynasty had disappeared. Several of the marquesses and other feudal princes of earlier times had usurped the title of See also: Mencius found the nation nominally one, and with the traditions of two thousand years affirming its essential unity, but actually divided into seven monarchies, each seeking to subdue the others under itself. The consequences were See also:constant warfare and chronic misery. In Confucius's time we meet with recluses who had withdrawn in disgust from the See also:world and its turmoil; but these had now given place to a class of men who came forth from their retirements provided with arts of See also:war or schemes of policy which they recommended to the contending chiefs, ever ready to See also:change their See also:allegiance as they were moved by whim or See also:interest. Mencius was once asked about two of them, "Are they not really great men? Let them be angry, and all the princes are afraid. Let them live quietly, and the flames of trouble are everywhere extinguished." He looked on them as little men, and delighted to proclaim his See also:idea of the great man in such See also:language as the following: " To dwell in love, the wide See also:house of the world, to stand in propriety, the correct seat of the world, and to walk in righteousness, the great path of the world; when he obtains his See also:desire for See also:office, to practise his principles for the See also:good of the See also:people, and when that desire is disappointed, to practise them alone; to be above the power of riches and honours to make dissipated, of poverty and mean condition to make swerve from the right, and of power and force to make See also:bend—these characteristics constitute the great man." Most vivid are the pictures which Mencius gives of the condition of the people in consequence of the See also:wars of the states. " The royal ordinances were violated; the multitudes were oppressed; the supplies of See also:food and drink flowed away like See also:water." It is not wonderful that, when the See also:foundations of government were thus overthrown, speculations should have arisen that threatened to overthrow what he considered to be the foundations of truth and all social order. " A shrill-tongued See also:barbarian from the See also:south," as Mencius called him, proclaimed the dissolution of ranks, and advocated a return to See also:primitive simplicity. He and his followers maintained that learning was quackery, and statesmanship See also:craft and oppression, that See also:prince and See also:peasant should be on the same level, and every man do everything for himself. Another, called Yang-ch0, denied the difference between virtue and See also:vice, See also:glory and shame. It was the same with all at death. The conclusion there-fore was: " Let us eat and drink; let us gratify the ears and eyes, get servants and maidens, , beauty, See also:music, See also:wine; when the See also:day is insufficient, carry it on through the See also:night. Each one for himself." Against a third heresiarch, of a very different See also:stamp, Mencius See also:felt no less indignation. This was Mo Ti, who found the source of all the evils of the time and of all time in the want of mutual love. He taught, therefore, that men should love others as themselves; princes, the states of other princes as much as their ovQn; See also:children, the parents of others as much as their own. Mo, in his gropings, had got hold of a See also:noble principle, but he did not apprehend it distinctly nor set it forth with discrimination. To our philosopher the See also:doctrine appeared contrary to the Confucian orthodoxy about the five relations of society; and he attacked it without See also:mercy and with an equal confusion of thought. " Yang's principle," he said, " is `each one for himself,' which does not acknowledge theclaims of the See also:sovereign. Mo's is ` to love all equally,' which does not acknowledge the See also:peculiar See also:affection due to a father. But to acknowledge neither king nor father is to be in the See also:state of a beast. Theway of benevolence and righteousness is stopped up," On this ocean of lawlessness, wickedness, heresies and misery Mencius looked out from the quiet of his school, and his spirit was stirred to See also:attempt the See also:rescue of the people from See also:misrule and See also:error. "If See also:Heaven," he said, "wishes that the kingdom should enjoy tranquillity and good order, who is there besides me to bring it about? " He formed his See also:plan, and proceeded to put it in See also:execution. He would go about among the different See also:kings till he should find one among them who would follow his counsels and commit to him the entire See also:administration of his government. That obtained, he did not doubt that in afew years there would be a kingdom so strong and so good that all rulers would acknowledge its superiority, and the people hasten from all quarters to See also:crown its sovereign as monarch of the whole of China. This plan was much the same as that of Confucius had been; but, with the bolder character that belonged to him, Mencius took in one respect a position See also:horn which " the master " would have shrunk. The former was always loyal to Chan, and thought he could See also:save the country by a See also:reformation; the latter saw the day of Chau was past, and the. time was come for a revolution. Mencius's view was the more correct, but he was not wiser than the sage in fore-casting for the future. They could think only of a reformed dynasty or of a changed dynasty, ruling according to the model principles of a feudal constitution, which they •described in glowing language. They desired a repetition of the See also:golden age in the remote past; but soon after Mencius disappeared from the See also:stage of See also:life there came the sovereign of Ch'in, and solved the question with See also:fire and See also:sword, introducing the despotic See also:empire which has since prevailed. The question may be asked, " How, in the execution of his plan, was Mencius, a See also:scholar, without See also:wealth or station, to find See also:admission to the courts of lawless, and unprincipled kings, and acquire the See also:influence over them which he expected?" The See also:answer can only be found by bearing in mind the position accorded from the earliest times in China to men of virtue and ability. The same written character denotes both scholars and See also:officers. They are at the See also:top of the social See also:scale-the first of the four classes into which the See also:population has always been divided. This appreciation of learning or culture has exercised a powerful influence over the government under both conditions of its existence; and out of it See also:grew the See also:system of making See also:literary merit the See also:passport to See also:official employment. The See also:ancient doctrine was that the scholar's See also:privilege was from Heaven as much as the sovereign's right; the See also:modern system is a See also:device of the despotic See also:rule to put itself in Heaven's place, and have the making of the scholar in its own hands. The feeling and conviction out of which the system grew prevailed in the time of. Mencius. The dynasties that had successively ruled over the kingdom had owed their See also:establishment not more to the military See also:genius of their founders than to the See also:wisdom and organizing ability of the learned men, the statesmen, who were their bosom See also:friends and trusted counsellors. Why should not he become to one of the princes of his day what I Yin had been to Thang, and Thai-kung Wang to King Wan, and the See also:duke of Chan to Wil and Ch'ang? But, though Mencius might be the equal of any of those worthies, he knew of no prince like Thang and the others, of noble aim and soul, who would adopt his lessons. In his eagerness he overlooked this condition of success for his enterprise. He might meet with, such .. a ruler as he looked for, or he might reform a See also:bad one, and make him the coadjutor that he required. On the strength of these peradventures, and attended by several of his disciples, Mencius went for more than twenty years from one See also:court to another, always baffled, and always ready to try again. He was received with great respect by kings and princes. He would not enter into the service of any of them, but he occasionally accepted honorary offices of distinction; and he did not See also:scruple to receive large gifts which enabled him to live and move about as a man of wealth. In delivering his See also:message he was as fearless and outspoken as See also: He' could not stir any one to See also:honourable See also:action. He confronted See also:heresy with strong arguments and exposed it with withering See also:sarcasm; but he could See also:work no deliverance in the See also:earth. The last court at which we find him was that of LO, probably in 310 B.C. The marquis of that state had given office to Yo-chang, one of Mencius's disciples, and he hoped that this might he the means of a favourable See also:hearing for himself. So it had' nearly happened. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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