Mencius
Here, Mencius showed his ideal images of saints and gentlemen. For example, Mencius said that the reason why a gentleman is different from ordinary people is because he always puts benevolence and righteousness in his heart and implements it in his behavior. If a person is suddenly cruel to a gentleman, then the gentleman will not get angry easily, but immediately reflect on whether he has done something wrong to lead to such a result. If, after reflection, a gentleman thinks he is wrong, he will not hesitate to apologize to the person who offended him and admit his mistake. If he is not wrong, he will only laugh and think that he is just a rash person. Why have a hard time with him and won't get back at him? This is advocated by Confucianism.
In Mencius' eyes, a gentleman is a perfect figure and a person with very noble morality. He said that a gentleman has nothing to worry about, because everything a gentleman does is magnanimous, and there is nothing to be afraid of without guilt in his heart. If a gentleman has anything to worry about, it is that his virtue is not high enough and his cultivation is not in place, so he can't compare with the ancient saints. That's what saints should worry about. What do we do? Only by constantly learning, constantly improving our self-cultivation, constantly overcoming our inner fears, and spending all our time on learning to enrich ourselves and improve ourselves, is what a gentleman really wants to do.
Although Mencius' theory was useless in the troubled times of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, it still played a role in improving personal cultivation and easing class contradictions.
Introduction of Mencius Speaking of Mencius, I believe everyone is familiar with it, even many foreigners are familiar with it. Mencius was a famous figure in the Warring States period, and his thoughts and political influence were far-reaching. He is a respected scholar, a great thinker and political scientist, and also a representative of Confucian school. Mencius was born in 372 BC, and his ancestral home is Zou, which is today's Zoucheng, Shandong.
Portrait of Mencius
Speaking of Mencius, everyone will definitely think of another sage, that is Confucius. In fact, although Confucius is often mentioned, the distance between Mencius and Confucius is about 100 years old. We know from historical documents that Mencius was born in a civilian family, but he was a real noble descendant. Although he lost his father in his early years and his family was very poor, he was still diligent and eager to learn, so that he became a great thinker admired by later generations. Many of Mencius' theories are influenced by Confucianism, and he is the most representative figure in Confucianism.
Mencius advocated benevolent governance all his life. During the Warring States period, he traveled around the world. Although it has not been adopted by various countries, it still has a great influence on future generations. After Mencius advocated political failure, he began to settle for second best and began to give lectures and teach students. He once wrote seven world-famous Mencius, and of course there are many works that we are all familiar with. Among them, what we are familiar with is "getting the Tao".
The story of Mencius The name of Mencius has an extraordinary significance in the long history of China. His most prominent influence is his thoughts of benevolence, righteousness and goodness. Mencius was a great saint, and many extraordinary stories happened in his life. Of course, the story that comes to mind most is "Meng Mu's Three Movements", which is also a story of far-reaching significance to Mencius' later achievements.
Portrait of Mencius
Meng Mu's Three Movements is a story about children's education. It mainly tells Meng Mu's attention to the study of Mencius. In order to educate Mencius well, Meng Mu moved to three places, provided a living environment suitable for learning for Mencius, and was strict with Mencius.
In addition, there are some stories, such as Mencius being taught, the central idea of which is to tell the story that Meng Mu taught Mencius to have the most basic etiquette in doing things, whether to outsiders or to his family; There is also a story with a paragraph metaphor. The main content is that you must persevere in your study and don't give up halfway. The story of this parable has an important influence on Mencius becoming a master of Confucianism in the future.
There are many stories about Mencius, such as killing dolphins and not deceiving children, which Mencius also recited when he was young. There are catchy idioms such as "the initiator", "one exposure to ten cold" and "pot calling the kettle black". These stories explain some principles of being a man and doing things from different aspects and angles, which are Mencius' educational thoughts and Mencius' personal words and deeds. He educated our descendants with words and deeds.
Mencius famous sayings In our life, there are many famous aphorisms. Whenever you encounter setbacks, perhaps it is these famous aphorisms that make you overcome difficulties and inspire you to move forward. Life is just a mood, a goal and a dream. We can also see these from many famous sayings. Then, as a saint in China's Millennium culture, what famous sayings are inspiring us?
Portrait of Mencius
Everything is in a dilemma. "You can't have your cake and eat it" is a philosophy and an important famous saying of Mencius. This is Mencius' exposition of life and benevolence, saying that life is precious, but for the sake of benevolence in people's hearts, one can give up one's life at a critical time. In fact, from this sentence, we can also see some views of Mencius on the word benevolence.
There is a famous historical saying in Mencius' poem, "Born in sorrow, died in happiness", which is also a famous poem we learned from Chinese textbooks. This sentence has alerted many people and made people clearly realize that no matter what kind of environment they are in, they should have a sense of urgency, and they should not be immersed in pleasure every day, especially those with heavy burdens, and they should not relax themselves in order to have their own place in the fierce and complicated society.
If we describe a person who is confused by the current illusion or local phenomenon, so that he can't recognize the most fundamental side of a thing, will we think of a famous historical saying, "One leaf can't see Mount Tai" at this time? In fact, this famous saying is also an idiom story, which was also written by Mencius.
Mencius' Works Mencius, whose name is Ke, was a great statesman, thinker and educator in the Warring States Period. He is the inheritor and promoter of the Confucian school of Confucius, and is called "elegant sage" by later generations. His book Mencius was compiled by Mencius himself and his disciples Zhang Wan and Gong Sunchou.
Mencius, one of the Four Books and Five Classics
Mencius was written from about 250 BC to 150 BC, and is called the "Four Books" together with Daxue, The Doctrine of the Mean and The Analects of Confucius. It is said that Mencius is the largest among the four books and the Five Classics, with about 35,000 words and 286 chapters. According to Hanshu? According to Yiwenzhi, there are eleven original works of Mencius, and now there are only seven articles and fourteen volumes.
Mencius was mainly educated by Confucius' grandson. After he completed his studies, like Confucius, he lobbied other countries at that time, mainly visiting Liang, Qi, Song and Lu. In lobbying, he tried to promote the political thought of Confucianism and realize his political theory of "benevolent governance". He was a guest in the state of Qi, but his political intentions were not adopted. Mencius returned to his hometown, gathered people to give lectures and wrote a book.
At first, Mencius was not among the "Confucian classics". It was not until the Five Dynasties that Meng Chang in the post-Shu Dynasty made people carve eleven regular scripts, in which Mencius was included. This was the first time that Mencius was included in the classics. In Song Dynasty, Song Taizong reprinted the Eleven Classics. By the time of filial piety in the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhu, a great scholar at that time, had formally included Mencius in the "Four Books". Since then, Mencius has reached a new height. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Mencius was already a compulsory part of the imperial examination, which was equivalent to the current textbooks.
Confucius was also called a famous thinker, educator and politician in the Spring and Autumn Period. He is the founder of Confucianism, named Qiu, and now he is from Qufu, Shandong. Confucius was a disciple of Taoist Laozi in his early years. He was an official in Shandong, and later led some disciples to travel around the world for fourteen years. Later, he returned to Shandong and founded private lectures, which broke the monopoly system of teaching at that time and created a precedent for private lectures.
Portrait of Confucius
In his later years, Confucius began to revise the six classics, such as Poetry, Book, Rite, Yue, Yi and Chunqiu. After his death, his disciples compiled his words and deeds into The Analects. Confucius was regarded as a saint by the late Buddha and was the first of the "Top Ten Cultural Celebrities in the World".
Mencius was a great thinker, educator and politician in the Warring States period. He is a disciple of Confucius' grandson Zisi. Mencius, Mink, Zi Yuzi. He inherited and developed Confucius' Confucianism. Politically, he advocated that kings of all countries should implement benevolent policies and put forward the Confucian thought of "valuing the people and neglecting the monarch". Academically, Confucius is respected and Taoism and Mohism are opposed. He is the most outstanding master of Confucianism after Confucius. Like Confucius, he traveled around the world, lobbying other kings for the Confucian idea of benevolent governance. But no one adopted it in the end. He returned to his hometown to write and give lectures with his disciples. Mencius has been handed down for seven generations, and Mencius in the Southern Song Dynasty is known as one of the four books and five classics. After his death, people later called him "Yasheng".
Confucius and Mencius respectively represented the most famous figures of Confucianism in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and were called "the way of Confucius and Mencius", so Confucianism was also called "the way of Confucius and Mencius".