2. Education distinguishes between human beings and animals, and between kind people and corrupt behaviors. Mencius believes that the existence of innate goodness is an important symbol of the difference between human beings and animals.
3. Education is the foundation and cornerstone of establishing social ethical order. Only by establishing a stable "social ethical order" can we "govern the country" and "level the world". The establishment of "social ethical order" depends on education, including family education, school education, social education and so on.
4. Education is an important way to convince people. Mencius believes that there are two ways to unify the world and win over the people. One is to convince people with strength, and the other is to convince people with virtue. Forcibly persuading people is overbearing, which Mencius thinks is not desirable; Serving people with virtue is king, and Mencius agrees with it very much. The key to the so-called serving people with virtue lies in winning the hearts of the people and making them submit.
5. Education is an important means to make Qiang Bing a rich country.
Thought summary:
Mencius' main ideas are: benevolence, righteousness and goodness. According to historical records, Mencius has seven masterpieces handed down from generation to generation, while according to Han Art and literature, there are eleven. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhao Qi said that Mencius had four foreign books: Sexual Argumentation, Wen Shuo, Xiao Jing and Kevin·Z, while eleven books were regarded as four foreign books except seven. Zhao Qi thinks that the contents of the four foreign books are superficial and inconsistent with the internal books, which should be written by future generations. Mencius, which has been handed down to this day, was said by Zhao Qi. Although this book was not written by Mencius, it was recorded by Mencius' disciples, and all this is undoubtedly Mencius' words and deeds. As can be seen from the book, Mencius has the following remarks and thoughts: in terms of human nature, he advocates the theory of goodness.
I think people are born with four virtues: benevolence, righteousness, courtesy and wisdom. People can maintain and expand it through internal ellipsis, otherwise they will lose these good qualities. So he asked people to pay attention to the role of introspection. In terms of social and political views, Mencius highlighted the king of benevolent governance. Benevolence means "saving punishment and collecting taxes" for the people. He summed up from historical experience that "violence against its people will lead to physical death", and said that all three generations won the world because of benevolence and lost the world because of benevolence. Emphasizing the development of agriculture, caring for the people and people's livelihood, he said in "On My Country": "Seventy people are clothed with meat, and the people are neither hungry nor cold, but they are not kings and have nothing."