Mencius

Author: Du Yujian Liu Meichang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: The book Mencius is rich in literary color, particularly in its portrayal of Mencius's own psychology. Mencius was highly confident in his advocacy for the "Kingly Way," but the rulers of the time did not accept his ideas, considering him "far-fetched and out of touch with reality." This, in turn, made Mencius even more confident and dismissive of the authorities of the time, as he himself put it, "When speaking to the great, one should hold them in contempt." When the King of Qi invited him to the court, he refused, claiming illness and waiting for the king to come to seek his advice. When the brother of the ruler of Teng came to learn from him, he ignored him. When Wang Xuan, a powerful minister of Qi, accompanied him on a mission, he remained silent throughout the journey. Mencius's idealistic and proud personality, unwilling to bow to the conventions of the world, is vividly portrayed in the book. His inner struggles are also felt by later readers. The literary features of Mencius are often closely related to Mencius's unique personality and psychology. The annotations and translations in this book are primarily based on Zhu Xi's Collected Annotations on Mencius and Jiao Xun's Corrective Commentary on Mencius, with references to some translations and annotations by contemporaries. Mencius often used metaphors in his speech, which, viewed from today's perspective, sometimes lack logical coherence. In translation, some had to be rendered literally, while others required supplementary explanations to ensure clarity, as otherwise, readers would struggle to understand. However, adding too many explanations would increase the length of the text, which posed a challenge for the author. This book was mainly annotated and translated by Du Yujian, while certain chapters of Gaozi and Jinxin were translated by Liu Meichang with reference to contemporaneous translations and annotations.