The Canon / Foundational / Ancient Source Texts
Foundational · Warring States China
Mencius
Mencius
Ancient Source TextsMencius is the second great text of the Confucian tradition, recording the teaching of the philosopher who took up and extended the thought of Confucius. Its most influential claim is that human nature is innately good, and that this goodness, like a sprout or seedling, requires only nourishment and protection to grow into mature virtue.
The work develops a corresponding inner discipline in its doctrine of the "unmoved mind," a steadiness of resolve that cannot be shaken by fear or temptation. Mencius treats the moral feelings, compassion, shame, deference and the sense of right, as the native shoots of the heart-mind, and cultivation as the patient tending of what is already present rather than the imposition of something foreign.
Within its tradition it secured the optimistic view of human nature against rival accounts and shaped Confucian thought for two millennia. For a study of the mind it offers an early and confident psychology of inner growth, in which character is the unfolding of an original goodness sustained by attention and resolve.
In its words
Benevolence is man's mind, and righteousness is man's path. How lamentable is it to neglect the path and not pursue it, to lose this mind and not know to seek it again! When men's fowls and dogs are lost, they know to seek for them again, but they lose their mind, and do not know to seek for it. The great end of learning is nothing else but to seek for the lost mind.
He who has exhausted all his mental constitution knows his nature. Knowing his nature, he knows Heaven. To preserve one's mental constitution, and nourish one's nature, is the way to serve Heaven.
The great man is he who does not lose his child's-heart.
Men must be decided on what they will NOT do, and then they are able to act with vigour in what they ought to do.
The feeling of commiseration is the principle of benevolence. The feeling of shame and dislike is the principle of righteousness. The feeling of modesty and complaisance is the principle of propriety. The feeling of approving and disapproving is the principle of knowledge.
From the feelings proper to it, it is constituted for the practice of what is good. This is what I mean in saying that the nature is good. If men do what is not good, the blame cannot be imputed to their natural powers.
Thus, when Heaven is about to confer a great office on any man, it first exercises his mind with suffering, and his sinews and bones with toil. It exposes his body to hunger, and subjects him to extreme poverty. It confounds his undertakings. By all these methods it stimulates his mind, hardens his nature, and supplies his incompetencies.
That, when looking up, he has no occasion for shame before Heaven, and, below, he has no occasion to blush before men; this is a second delight.
Practices it teaches
Nourishing the Flood-like Qi — building vast moral vitality through accumulated rightness
This is Mencius's signature practice of inner cultivation: nourishing the haoran zhi qi, the "vast, flowing" or flood-like passion-nature.
Seeking the Lost Heart — recovering and nurturing the four innate sprouts of virtue
This is Mencius's practice of recovering and nurturing the innate good already within: the "four sprouts" and the search for the strayed heart.
Making the Desires Few — nourishing the mind by reducing wants
This is Mencius's most compact teaching on inner clarity: to nourish the mind, make the desires few. Where his cultivation practices grow something (the flood-like qi, the four sprouts), this one clears the ground…
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