Meng Zi (Mencius)

1 Facts about Meng Zi’s Life

Meng Zi was the second most influential philosopher of the Ru Jia.
He lived from 372-238 BC.
He was born around the time of Zhuang Zi, Shang Yang, Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, Epicurus, and
Demosthenes
His personal name was Ke, courtesy name Zi You. He was born of the aristocratic Meng Sun
family of the state of Lu.
The classic attributed to him is the Book of Meng Zi, composed of seven books. It consists
of a series of discourses with his disciples and others including ministers, and feudal lords
or kings.
Meng Zi’s greatest contributions to Ru Jia came in two complementary areas: The first
contribution was in the area of human nature; the second lay in the area of political
philosophy

2 Meng Zi on Human Nature

*It must have been Kong Zi’s supposition that there is such a thing as human nature that prompted
the succeeding thinkers to ask what that nature could be
*Meng Zi VS Gao Zi
-Gao Zi: “Human nature is like a willow tree, and righteousness is like a cup or a bowl. To turn
human nature into Ren, humanity, and Yi, righteousness is like turning the willow into cups and
bowls.”
-Meng Zi: “Sir, can you follow the nature of the willow tree and make the cups and bowls, or must
you violate the nature of the willow tree before you can make the cups and bowls? If you are going
to violate the nature of the willow tree in order to make cups and bowls, then you must also violate
human nature in order to make it into humanity and righteousness?”
-Gao Zi: “Man’s nature is like flowing water. If a breach in the pool is made to the east, it will flow
to the east. If a breach is made to the west, it will flow to the west. Man’s nature is indifferent to
good and evil, just as water is indifferent to east and west!”
-Meng Zi: “Water, indeed, is indifferent to the east and west, but is it indifferent to high and low?
Man’s nature is naturally good as water naturally flows downward. There is no man without this
good nature; neither is there water that does not flow downward. Now, can you strike water and
cause it to splash upward over your forehead, and by damming and leading it, you can force it
uphill. Is this the nature of water?”
*Meng Zi maintains that everyone is good at birth. He believed that one is born with innate seeds
of goodness which should then be cultivated to the fullest, the limit in each person being ultimate
perfection, as all human nature is ultimately perfectible.
a) the sense of pity—when developed, man acquires the virtue of Ren;
b) the sense of right and wrong—when developed, man acquires the virtue of Yi;
c) the sense of good and evil—when developed, man acquires the virtue of Li;
d) the sense of truth and falsity—when developed, man acquires the virtue of Zhi
*If Kong Zi merely implied in his discourses on Zhong and Shu, albeit the Golden Rule, that there is
such a thing as human nature, Meng Zi affirms that the nature is intrinsically good; and that this
is morally perfectible because man has already within him the seeds of innate goodness. Virtue
comes as the total blooming of these innate good seeds, and it is the very purpose of human
life.
*If man is intrinsically good, why is there evil?

“We are all equally men; yet some become great (meaning moral) and others become
small (evil or immoral). How is this? Those who follow the great part of themselves
become great men, and those who follow the small part of themselves become small men.”
MENG ZI

-In Chinese, ‘the great part’ refers to the faculty of the heart, which also refers to reason, and
the ‘small part’ refers to the senses, i.e. sight and hearing.
--“The senses of sight and hearing do not think, but are obscured by (external) things. When the
things come into contact with the senses, the latter will be led astray. But the faculty of the heart
is to think. By thinking, one obtains what is good; without thinking, one fails to do so.” Meng Zi
--Meng Zi tells us here that one who uses reason cannot be but good, while one who allows
himself to be led by the “desires” of senses will become evil.

*The cultivation of one’s moral character must be guarded jealously at all times lest he falls into
the temptation of the eyes and ears. The whole process of learning should be focused on the
development of this moral character.

“When people lose their fowl and dogs, they know how to seek them. But if they lose
their heart, they do not know how to seek it. The end of learning is nothing but the search
for the lost heart. To seek for the lost heart is nothing but the recovery of one’s original
good nature and its preservation.” MENG ZI

--The whole purpose of human life does not only involve the cultivation of the innate seeds of
goodness but also the preservation of the pure child’s heart.
--Meng Zi thought that what one should do first was to exert oneself to the fullest in moral
endeavor and disregard matters about which one can do little or nothing at all
3 Meng Zi’s Political Theory
*When Meng Zi was asked what makes up a state, he referred unhesitatingly to the people, the
land and the sovereign.
-When asked which one to eliminate if one of them were to be removed, he said it should be the
sovereign.
-Which one may be eliminated next, he said it should be the land.
-The people occupy the highest among the three. People are the most important element; the
spirits of the land and grain are the next; the sovereign is the lightest.
-Meng Zi argued that the ruler existed for the sake of the people and power emanated from the
multitude
*But who is to rule the State and how do we choose a ruler?
-The structure of the government depends on the natural endowment of people with intellectual
and physical abilities. Those who are gifted with the power of reason are destined to rule while
those with strength are destined to labor.
-Meng Zi was quick to remind us of their mutual interdependence, for one without the other is not
possible.

“Some labor with their mind, and some labor with their strength. Those who labor with
their minds govern others; those who labor with their strength are governed by others.
Those who are governed by others support them; those who govern others are supported
by them. This is a principle universally recognized.” MENG ZI

*Rational power, however, is not the “be all” and “and all” of an ideal ruler, for a true ruler must
also possess true moral virtue.
-Heaven chooses the right person of this dual quality to rule.
--However, how can one know the Will of Heaven when heaven was up above while humans are
down below?
--“Heaven hears as the people hear; Heaven sees as the people see.” Meng Zi
--By saying so, Meng Zi not only made the people the absolute measure for judging the
government, but he also made them the standard of Tian itself
*The demand for moral quality in a ruler is as much as its demand for wisdom. For only a wise
ruler can lead his subjects to its right end and only a true moral person can do it the right way.
-For Meng Zi, only the benevolent ones (people of Ren) ought to be in a high station
-There are two very important functions of a benevolent ruler. One is economic prosperity and
the other is the education of the people in the art of living in unity, harmony, righteousness,
propriety, and sincerity.
*The social responsiveness of Meng Zi’s political philosophy, however, resides in his cognizance
of the sovereign’s moral and social accountability to his subjects coupled with his sanction for
committed action against violation of this accountability.
-King Xuan of Ji: “May a subject, then, slay his sovereign?”
-Meng Zi: “If the prince has great faults, they (ministers, nobles, etc.) ought to remonstrate with
him, and if he does not listen after they have done so again and again, they ought to dethrone him.
-Meng Zi: “When the sovereign has become worthless and useless, his hope is that Heaven will
raise up someone for the help of the people; someone who shall so occupy an original subordinate
position as to draw all eyes and hearts to himself.”
--This is what Meng Zi called Qi Yi Bing, literally, “uprising of the righteous soldiers”
--In this sense, revolution does not only become the right of the multitude but it becomes
their moral duty to pluck out the tyrant—revolution is called for out of Yi, of righteousness
--With this view, Meng Zi became the world’s first political philosopher to have advocated
the idea of the right to revolution