Personal Library -- Mencius

Author: Meng Ke Wang Li Min (Warring States Period)
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-07-01
Features: Meng Ke, known as Mencius, was a native of Zou in the Warring States Period (now Zoucheng City, Shandong Province). He was born around 385 BC and died around 300 BC. Mencius was a prominent thinker and educator during the Warring States Period, inheriting and developing the thoughts of Confucius, becoming the most authoritative representative of the Confucian school in the mid-Warring States Period. In feudal society, Mencius was revered as the second sage after Confucius, known as the "Second Sage." The book Mencius is the most direct and reliable material for studying Mencius's thoughts. Since the Han Dynasty, scholars have continuously studied Mencius and written commentaries on it. Especially after the Xining period of Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty, when Mencius was honored as a classic, the number of commentaries on it increased significantly. Among the thousands of works on Mencius, three are particularly praised by scholars: Zhao Ji's Commentary on the Chapters of Mencius (Eastern Han Dynasty), Zhu Xi's Collected Annotations on Mencius (Southern Song Dynasty), and Jiao Xun's Corrective Commentary on Mencius (Qing Dynasty). Additionally, Sun Shuang's Commentary and Annotations on Mencius (Song Dynasty) and Song Xiangfeng's Supplementary Corrections to Zhao Ji's Annotations on Mencius (Qing Dynasty) are also influential commentaries. Mencius was a straightforward, bold, and spirited person, and this personality is fully reflected in the book Mencius. In his later years, Mencius and his disciple Wan Zhang compiled the book Mencius, which includes seven chapters such as Huihui Wang and Gongzhu Chou. This book was written "imitating the sage," absorbing the essence of The Analects and incorporating the characteristics of The Great Learning and The Doctrine of the Mean. It accurately records Mencius's thoughts, speeches, and deeds, preserving rich historical materials. It is an important work for studying Mencius's thoughts, as well as pre-Qin literature, history, economy, and philosophy. The entire book has 35,000 words, with profound reasoning, fluent and vivid language, making it not only a representative work of Confucianism but also an excellent collection of ancient prose. Since the Han Dynasty, Mencius has begun to show its political influence; by the Northern Song Dynasty, it was included as a Confucian classic; Zhu Xi of the Southern Song Dynasty listed Mencius as one of the "Four Books"; and the imperial examinations during the Ming and Qing dynasties required questions to be selected from the "Four Books." Therefore, any scholar seeking official position had to thoroughly study Mencius. While there were certainly the selfish motives of politicians, from another perspective, books that could become political tools must also have a broad popular foundation.