This post becomes part of CGTNs China in Ink task, which brings the significant world of timeless Chinese literature to the fingertips of global audiences.In the Confucian universes, Confucius (551-479 BC) is the Sage.But there is another.
The Second Sage is understood in China as Meng Ke or Mengzi, and to the broader world as Mencius.He isnt a Doctor Who-style reincarnation of the original master, but rather his intellectual heir, passing the torch while setting it to new kindling.
Together, they sparked the Confucian universes really own big bang.”& rdquo; Mencius was a devoted fan of Confucius teachings.
Born in the early 4th century BC, he arrived on Earth almost 100 years too late to sit in on the Sages lectures.
The reality that their birthplaces –-- both in contemporary Chinas Shandong Province –-- are just 30-minute drive apart today may use him a tip of solace.Little is known about Mencius early life.
His daddy is an enigma, and his mom resides on in several popular tales of exemplary motherhood.
Among them states she moved home 3 times exclusively to discover a neighborhood favorable to her kids education.
The stories are still popular today, though their sources all date to centuries after Mencius time.Mencius matured amid a crescendo of mayhem in Chinas Warring States Period (475-221 BC).
The very name is a testament to the eras rough political environment.
The feudal order that Confucius had actually found strained was close to breaking point: the once-majestic Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BC) had actually diminished to a simple placeholder, while warlords released endless offensives in quotes for supremacy, leaving ordinary folk to bear the impact.
Mencius resolved to guide the world back onto the straight and narrow, taking on the mantle Confucius had set down a century in the past.
With both earnest conviction and subtle wit, he intended to advise these power-hungry rulers of the ancient Kingly Way –-- the virtuous ideal embodied by famous, benevolent sovereigns that had long considering that been betrayed in the unbridled pursuit of dominance.Mencius pronouncement that the people are to be respected above the ruler” & rdquo; struck like a thunderbolt.
For 40 years he wandered the warring states as a philosophical coach, intent on instilling this perfect in those on the throne.
He argued that real governance depends upon winning hearts rather than ruling by worry: intimidation may secure obedience, however it inevitably destroys loyalty.
Simply as a kingdom rests on its vassals, vassals on households, and households on individuals, he taught, real authority springs from individual stability.
A sovereign who embodies humaneness, righteousness, propriety and wisdom requires no show of force to keep individuals in his orbit, ensuring a stable and genuine reign.Regrettably for Mencius, and even more so for the people ruled by those he looked for to sway, his lofty ideals of sheathing swords to cultivate virtue held scant allure for warmongers fearing for their own existence.
They yearned for ever-larger armies and ever-wider swaths of area to feed them, waging one conquest after another just to fuel the next.
A return to an ancestral order rooted in righteousness rather than the point of the spear might permanently be deferred.Sharing Confucius steadfast devotion and purpose, Mencius followed the Masters footsteps to a similarly mournful end.
In the fall of Mencius life, weighed down by unsatisfied aspirations and the passage of time, the most distinguished bearer of Confucius torch might not do anything but lament: Every half-millennium, Heaven ordains the rise of a real sovereign –-- one destined for renown.
More than 700 years have passed since Zhou; by simple count we appear overdue, yet measured versus the worlds discontent, hope still lives.
Clearly, paradise has actually not yet decreed that all under heaven be at peace!”& rdquo; In his seventies, Mencius forsook his journeys and, similar to Confucius a century earlier, committed his viewpoint to the page.
The resulting eponymous text weaves his ideas into discussions he had actually had with kings, nobles, intellectual challengers and disciples over years.
Modern scholars normally agree that the work shows a single authorial voice.
A deliberate echo of the structure of Analects, the records of Confucius mentors and life, recommends a mindful homage to his predecessor.
By the Song Dynasty (960-1279), Mencius was preserved alongside the Analects as one of the Four Books of the Confucian canon.Advancing Confucius teaching, Mencius argued that every human heart is born with the sprouts of compassion and righteousness.
To put it simply, our nature is essentially excellent.
He went as far as to declare that everyone brings the capacity for sagehood.
Through cultivation and education, virtues will bloom and manifest naturally and vibrantly in our behaviors in all type of relationships and affairs.
Governing the world becomes as simple and easy as turning ones palm once the ruler champions the high virtues.Mencius faith in the inherent goodness of human nature marks him out as a true optimist.
There have constantly been doubters, even within the Confucian custom.
Xunzi, an imposing thinker of the 3rd century BC, famously argued that without disciplined education to fix our inborn flaws, people are much more vulnerable to moral decrease than to the heights of sagehood.Mencius knowledge still talks to us in the age of expert system.
The age-old concern of human nature has been hurled into sharp relief as the devices gain from information steeped in our own biases.
Their actions to human orders will unavoidably mirror whether we see humankind as essentially great or irredeemably flawed.
Should we, like Mencius, place our faith in innate virtue or temper our ambitions with careful prudence? And even if we could encode empathy, righteousness and other Confucian perfects into an algorithm, can we be sure it will reconcile those lofty principles with the darker impulses that fuel real-world violence, rather than designing its own devastating solutions?None of these questions yields simple answers.
Still, returning to Mencius may yet yield a stimulate of hope of protecting a safe path to ultimately addressing them.