Mencius's "Gentleman"

Author: Wang Jie

The word gentleman, originally a symbol of social class status, is a title exclusive to the nobility as opposed to ordinary people. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius, the founder of the Confucian school, made a creative transformation of the concept of the gentleman, giving it more moral connotations, transforming it from a concept of social class into a "model of personality that everyone can learn from." During the Warring States period, Mencius elaborated on the basis of Confucius, emphasizing the inner morality at the same time, but also highlighting the external development of virtue, and treating those who have high morality, and pursue the value of life and life goals, realize social ideals and political ideals, and have perfect ideal personality as gentlemen.

Mencius was a gentleman with moral attainments and was able to adopt a positive attitude towards life in society. On the question of how to cultivate a gentleman, Mencius said: "Therefore a gentleman is different from others, and his heart is also with his heart." A gentleman has a heart of benevolence and a heart of courtesy. ...... Then the gentleman will be self-reflexive. Looking for the reason for practicing "benevolence" from within the self, rather than looking outward for its roots, is actually a re-embodiment of Confucius's idea of "a gentleman seeking everything from himself". If a person practices "benevolence" in practical life with a "reflexive" attitude, "non-benevolence and inaction, incivility and incivility", then this person also has the requirements of a gentleman.

The pursuit of the value of life and the realization of life goals, and the pursuit of the ideal personality realm of perfection and loftiness, have always been important topics that Confucian scholars, including Mencius, have been diligently pursuing. Mencius said: "The guard of a gentleman, cultivate his body and the world is peaceful." The gentleman in Mencius's mind must not only have an intrinsic morality, but also push this virtue outward in order to contribute to the country and society. Mencius regarded meritorious service as a part of the life of a gentleman, saying: "The people of the vast land, the gentleman wants, the pleasure does not exist; the middle of the world stands, the people of the four seas, the gentleman is happy." "Treating the gentleman as a saint emphasizes the realization of the royal way through enlightenment." And "Mencius Li Lou Shang" said: "It is advisable for those who are benevolent to be in a high position." To be unkind and to be in a high position is to sow its evil to the multitude. There is no way up, there is no way to keep it, there is no faith in the way, there is no faith in the work, a gentleman commits a crime, a villain commits a punishment, and the survivors of the kingdom are fortunate. "Mencius Leaving Lou Xia" said: "Hui does not know how to govern." In November of the year, in vain, in December, liang became public opinion, and the people were not sick. Gentlemen are equal to their government, and they can also do things to open up people. What is it for everyone? Therefore, for those who are in power, everyone is pleased, and the day is not enough. The gentleman in Mencius's mind is a cultivator with the cultivation of "inner saint and outer king", who can take the moral self-consciousness of the individual as the principle of self-cultivation, and finally stand between heaven and earth, and assume the heavy responsibility of the country and the nation.

Mencius not only expressed the image of a gentleman in his mind, but also said the main method of shaping a "gentleman": First, self-cultivation and moral cultivation. Mencius advocated the goodness of human nature and emphasized that the "heart of the four ends" is rooted in the human heart. Mencius used the innate a priori inner goodness to stimulate and arouse the good nature of the human subconscious, and vigorously urged people to achieve the purpose of transforming themselves through the moral cultivation of the subject itself. Mencius believed that to solve any problem, we must seek the cause from the inside of the thing, and if the internal cause is solved, the rest of the problem can be solved. Mencius attaches great importance to the importance of "self-cultivation", and regards "self-cultivation" as the beginning of ruling the world, Mencius's so-called "self-cultivation" mainly refers to the cultivation of moral subjects, which is a kind of individual subjective and active behavior to enhance and perfect self-worth, which includes two aspects: mind cultivation and cultivation. First there is the "heart" to think, and then there are specific behaviors, so the focus of self-cultivation is "cultivating the heart"; self-cultivation is also the foundation of qi family and governance of the country, which achieves the purpose of transforming society through self-cultivation, family unity, governance of the country, and peace in the world, and in turn, the purpose of transforming people by leveling the world, governing the country, uniting the family, and cultivating the body to achieve the purpose of transforming people from the outside and inside. These two different "processes" or "cultivation" routes are a complete and unified internal cultivation circulation system, a complete embodiment of the "inner sacred way", and if this is done, then the "home, country, and world" thing will be unimpeded. In order to achieve the ideal goal of ruling the country and the world through self-moral cultivation, Mencius highlighted the absolute importance of the "heart" in this process, believing that the heart can not only know, but also know the heavens. Mencius's self-cultivation and mind-cultivation theory is an important theoretical means for him to transform people, transform society, and govern the country, and has also become an important content that is mutually invented and complementary to his theory of sexual goodness.

The second is abstinence and abstinence and intentional nurturing. Another way Mencius portrayed the "gentleman" was abstinence and sexual cultivation. Mencius tried to solve the social and moral problems of the time in two ways: one was by lobbying the princes in order to make them accept the doctrine of "benevolent government" that he advocated. But that approach didn't work at the time. The second way Mencius adopted this goal was to achieve this goal by strengthening his own moral cultivation. Mencius believed that in the process of moral cultivation, a person first faced the relationship between human sensual desires and moral reason. In Mencius's view, although human nature is good, it is more affected by material desires and may tend to be evil. Therefore, in order to improve the moral cultivation of the self, a very important aspect is to abstain from desire and widowhood, and he warned King Hui of Liang that if he wants to realize the "great desire" of "cutting up the land, going to Qin and Chu, and touching China and caring for the four Yi", he must restrain his desire to be fat, sweet, warm, and sound, and only in this way can he realize the greater desire of "one day". Mencius tried to keep the pursuit of material desires within a reasonable moral limits. Mencius's advocacy of "abstinence" and "widowhood" is not to deny that people have normal desires, on the contrary, to some extent, he also believes that human desires are the basic starting point of human morality. When man's desires conflict with his moral reason, he should reasonably limit his desires by external "courtesy" and inner "benevolence." The abstinence and abstinence advocated by Mencius are not an end, but a means and method of "cultivating the mind". Mencius believed that the quality of a person's moral cultivation and the level of his cultivation realm are determined by himself, and if a person only knows how to pursue self-satisfaction at the physical level, it is difficult to explore the inner goodness, and it is difficult to become a moral gentleman; to become a moral gentleman, first of all, he must "stand tall", cultivate his ideal personality, and achieve "poverty does not lose righteousness, and does not deviate from the Tao", "poor is good to himself, and he can help the world", "rich and noble cannot be adulterous, poor cannot be moved, mighty cannot be bent", through the outward expansion of the "heart", so that " The spirit of Haoran "fills the space between heaven and earth; determined to be a person who takes the world as his own responsibility and pursues moral perfection, only in this way can he truly realize his own moral value." Mencius proceeded from the principle of universality of man, the purpose is to be able to fully mobilize and stimulate people's subjective initiative and moral consciousness, to promote people to live with a positive attitude, to carry out moral cultivation, and eventually to become a "gentleman".

Mencius's view of the gentleman has had a profound impact on the positive and upward life value goals pursued by future generations of benevolent people, and the ancient Chinese benevolent people have all demanded themselves with this standard of Mencius's gentleman and shaped their personality in practical life. Their spirit and spirit constitute the national characteristics of the Chinese nation of advocating national integrity, upholding justice, having tenacious national cohesion and awe-inspiring inviolability, and are the precious spiritual wealth of the Chinese nation, which is worthy of our good inheritance and development. The gentleman in Mencius's mind is even more the gentleman I yearn for in my heart. (Wang Jie)

Source: Learning Times