Mencius Selected--New Curriculum Standard Reading Series

Author: Liu Huifeng / Mi Xiaoyan (editors)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-07-01
Features: The development of Confucian prose has undergone a process from short to long, from simplicity to expansion, and from aphoristic style to argumentative style. From The Analects to Mencius, it has evolved from an aphoristic form—wherein literature and language are combined, narration and argumentation interweave, or expressed as concise and succinct maxims—to a lengthy and elaborate prose. The emergence of Mencius marked a revolutionary work in the transition of classical prose from chapters to complete essays. Before the Song Dynasty, Mencius was classified under the category of "Philosophers," but it was only in the Song Dynasty that it was placed in the "Five Classics" section. During the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhu Xi included it in the Four Books and wrote a commentary on it, which led to an increase in the number of scholars studying Mencius. Mencius consists of seven chapters. Currently, there are several annotated editions, including the Annotations and Commentaries on the Thirteen Classics (Song Dynasty, Zhu Xi's Commentary on the Four Books). In the Qing Dynasty, Dai Zhen criticized Zhu Xi's school for distorting the original meaning of the text, engaging in empty discussions on mind and nature, and producing overly abstract theories, and he wrote Explanations of the Meanings of Words in Mencius. Jiao Xun's Correct Interpretation of Mencius in the Qing Dynasty appropriately applied methods of textual criticism and etymology to clarify Zhao Ji's annotations. Today, there is Yang Bojun's Translation and Annotation of Mencius.