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Mencius was one of the great philosophers of ancient China, second only in influence to Confucius, whose teachings he defended and expanded. The Mencius, in which he recounts his dialogues with kings, dukes and military men, as well as other philosophers, is one of the Four Books that make up the essential Confucian corpus. It takes up Confucius's theories of jen, or goodness and yi, righteousness, explaining that the individual can achieve harmony with mankind and the universe by perfecting his innate moral nature and acting with benevolence and justice. Mencius' strikingly modern views on the duties of subjects and their rulers or the evils of war, created a Confucian orthodoxy that has remained intact since the third century BCE.�
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700�titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the�series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date�translations by award-winning translators.
- Sales Rank: #68912 in Books
- Brand: Lau, D. C./ Mencius
- Published on: 2005-06-28
- Released on: 2005-06-28
- Original language: Chinese
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 7.80" h x .70" w x 5.00" l, .50 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 304 pages
- Penguin Classics
Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Chinese
About the Author
Mencius (372-298 BC) was one of the greatest Chinese philosophers, focusing on political theory and practice. Mencius, like Confucius, believed that rulers were divinely placed in order to guarantee peace and order among the people they rule. Unlike Confucius, Mencius believed that if a ruler failed to bring peace and order about, then the people could be absolved of all loyalty to that ruler and were justified to revolt.
D. C. Lau is a Professor at the University of Hong Kong.
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Benevolence is not Enough.
By John Engelman
Mencius was a great Confucian scholar who lived a century after his mentor, from 372 BC to 289 BC. Mencius built his philosophy on one aspect of Confucius’ thinking: rulers should be benevolent. He deemphasized what Confucius also maintained: subjects of rulers should be obedient.
Benevolence in a ruler is to be commended. Nevertheless, it is not enough. Mencius seems to have overestimated the power of benevolence. He wrote, “If its ruler will put in practice a benevolent government, no power will be able to prevent his becoming sovereign,” and “Benevolence subdues its opposite just as water subdues fire.”
Evil men can usually only be subdued with power. A benevolent ruler who lacks military skills and the ability to detect and thwart palace uprisings is likely to be replaced by a ruler who is less benevolent or not benevolent at all.
In the thirteenth century the Mongolians conquered much of the known world. Their conquests included China, whose rulers studied Mencius, and much of the Islamic world at a time when Islam was as militant as it is now. The Mongolians did not do this by being benevolent, but by being militarily proficient, and by being so horrible that nations they conquered were afraid to revolt.
Much of Mencius’ philosophy captures our sympathy, not so much because it is obviously true, but because we wish it was true. He argues that humans are innately good. He seems to attribute human wickedness to bad leadership. In this he anticipates Jean Jacques Rousseau, although there is little reason to believe that Rousseau was directly influenced.
Mencius' assertion of innate human benevolence is based on the tendency many adults have to prevent a child from falling into a well. That is not very convincing. What about bully behavior among teenage boys? The most accomplished bullies are often the most popular boys in school. Their hapless victims are shunned, simply because they lack the ability to fight back and win.
What about atrocities in war? Think of the cruelties committed in the name of religion. Jesus tells us to love our enemies. Nevertheless some Christians have enjoyed torturing those who did not share their doctrines. The Koran does not condone the cruelties committed by ISIS. Members of ISIS behave the way they do because they enjoy it.
Some humans are naturally kind. Others are naturally cruel. Some humans are kind or cruel, depending on the circumstances. Human nature is more complex than Mencius acknowledges.
Mencius said, “The people are the most important element in a nation; the spirits of the land and grain are the next; the sovereign is the lightest.”
Nevertheless, he stopped short of being an egalitarian. He believed that the ruler should have an income several hundred times that of a peasant, and that that those who work with their minds should have authority over those who work with their muscles.
The writing of Mencius was one of the Four Books. Together with the Five Classics these comprised the Confucian canon. For two thousand years the Imperial Exams tested Chinese young men on their knowledge of these. Those who passed the exams entered the Scholar Gentry. This was the civil service of the various Chinese dynasties. Members of the Scholar Gentry had more prestige and usually better incomes than members of other classes in China.
Members of the Scholar Gentry were expected to have more than one wife, and many children. Although the sons of members of the Scholar Gentry could usually receive a better education in the Four Books and the Five Classics, in every generation about thirty percent of those who passed the Imperial Exams were the sons of peasants. Thus, for two thousand years China had more social mobility than any other nation; upward mobility was based on intelligence; it was rewarded with prolificacy.
This can explain why Chinese Americans tend to perform well on mental aptitude tests, in the class room, and on the job.
I found the translation with the picture of old books on the cover to be more readable than that of James Legge. Although James Legge was the first to translate the Four Books and the Five Classics into English, I recommend another translation of any of these if you have access to one.
Unfortunately, the translation with the old books on the cover lacks information about the publisher and the translator. This may come later. My copy has the date “15 August 2015” on the last page. It is August 30, 2015 as I write.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Deceptive product presentation, absurd rip-off
By Jim Howard
If there was a way to award 0 stars, I would. From a deceptive page that claims to sell a paperback edition of the D.C. Lau translation (which on later investigation turns out to have nothing to do with D.C. Lau, being an unrelated translation by someone else), I clicked on the hardback link and was presented with this. What I received is the completely bare James Legge translation, stripped and denuded of any and all of the considerable scholarship that Legge labored to provide. Rather than dignify it with the hassle of return, I wrote off my error and threw it in the recycling bin, where at least it may do some small good. My error was in assuming that any bookseller should know that different translations of a work are not the same work, and cannot be represented and sold as if they were.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Mencius' inspiring philosophy of compassion and benevolence
By Paul Haspel
Men and women go through their lives asking themselves “What is the right thing to do?”, and trying to live good lives. And some of the very best answers to those questions of how to live a good life and do the right thing come from a Chinese philosopher who lived 2400 years ago. Many people in the West do not know Mencius and his work, but everyone everywhere should.
Mencius, Meng Ke, 孟子, lived about a century after Confucius, and his work is unquestionably part of the intellectual and philosophical legacy of Confucianism. Mencius’ declaration that “Holding on to the middle is closer to being right, but to do this without the proper measure is no different from holding to one extreme” (VII.A. 26, p. 151) sounds very Confucian, and recalls the inscription above the entrance to the temple of Apollo at Delphi: μηδὲν ἄγαν, meden agan, nothing in excess. At the same time, however, Mencius offers something new and different from the work of Confucius. And it is in that difference that Mencius’ work – known simply as "The Mencius" – becomes wonderfully modern.
For all the profundity of Confucius’ "Analects," there sometimes seems to be something a bit self-interested about it all. Confucius calls upon his disciples to practice benevolence, to be sure; but to what end? Some readers of "The Analects" may feel that Confucius overemphasizes benevolence as a path toward being a gentleman rather than a “small man,” and gentlemanly status as the means by which one can secure an Imperial post equal to one’s talents. Is the whole point of benevolence that it helps one get a really good job? Such would be a gross oversimplification of "The Analects," in my opinion, but "The Mencius" does not leave itself open to such charges. Mencius, rather, engages in some fruitful speculations on the source of human benevolence itself.
In Mencius’ view, all people come into this world with what he calls “the germ of benevolence,” a predisposition to do good on behalf of others for others’ sake, with no self-interest involved. Mencius explains this concept in one of the most famous passages from "The Mencius":
”Suppose a man were, all of a sudden, to see a young child on the verge of falling into a well. He would certainly be moved to compassion, not because he wanted to get in the good graces of the parents, nor yet because he disliked the cry of the child. From this it can be seen that whoever is devoid of the heart of compassion is not human….The heart of compassion is the germ of benevolence” (II.A.6, p. 38).
That impulse toward compassion, Mencius argues, is natural to us; it is a predisposition. “Human nature is good just as water seeks low ground. There is no man who is not good; there is no water that does not flow downwards” (VI.A.2, pp. 122). Yet if all people come into the world with that predisposition toward empathy for all living things, how is it that people are able to behave cruelly? In Mencius’ view, the human tendency toward compassion is something that must be exercised and nurtured, because otherwise it can be lost. If one develops those innate qualities of compassion and ethical awareness, then “When these are fully developed, he can tend the whole realm within the Four Seas; but if he fails to develop them, he will not be able even to serve his parents” (II.A.6, pp. 38-39).
The system of morality that Mencius sets forth is eminently practical and sensible. When one of his disciples suggests that an unjust tax cannot be abolished immediately, Mencius compares that to a man making a “reduction” from stealing his neighbor’s chickens daily to stealing them only once a month and adds, “When one realizes that something is morally wrong, one should stop it as soon as possible. Why wait for next year?” (III.B.8, p. 71).
In this time of wars that seem to go on without end, there is something only too modern in Mencius’ declaration that there are “no just wars. There are only cases of one war not being quite as bad as another” (VII.B.2, p. 157). And an observer of the contemporary political scene might shake his or her head in rueful agreement with Mencius’ observation that “A good and wise man helps others to understand by his own clear understanding. Nowadays, men try to help others understand by their own benighted ignorance” (VII.B.20, p. 161).
A helpful introduction by scholar D.C. Lau of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (who also translated Penguin Books editions of the "Tao Te Ching" and "The Analects") situates "The Mencius" in its social and historical context. Along with a glossary of personal and place names, Lau also includes four appendices: one on events in the life of Mencius, a second that examines early traditions about the philosopher, a third on the text of The Mencius, a fourth that focuses on Mencius’ understanding of ancient history, and a fifth on Mencius’ use of analogy in argument. It is like taking a seminar in Chinese history and philosophy, all in the course of a 246-page book.
I read "The Mencius" while my wife and I were on a trip to Shanghai. Not far from the towering skyscrapers of the Pudong and the neon-lit commercialism of the Nanjing Road shopping district, one can walk quietly in Old Shanghai, amidst the serenity of the 16th-century Yu Garden. It is easy to imagine people of earlier times walking among the rockeries and pavilions of Yu Garden, and then sitting down by a pond to read from "The Mencius." Walking in Old Shanghai, experiencing the friendly smiles and the quiet courtesy of the Shanghainese people, even amidst the modern busy-ness of one of the world’s largest cities, I could not help thinking that the compassionate and benevolent spirit of Mencius lives on in the land of his birth.
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