孟子

孟子

孟子（约前372—前289），战国中期著名思想家、教育家，是继孔子之后儒家学派的代表人物，与孔子并称“孔孟”。孟子一生经历与孔子非常相似，游历诸国都未得重用。孟子重要言行被编纂整理为《孟子》一书，他个性鲜明，言辞雄辩，不惧王权，有浩然之气。

战国时期百家蜂拥而起，儒家面临着其他学派的挑战。孟子以维护孔子思想为己任，在与其他学派的辩论中继承并发展了孔子的思想：他将孔子的“仁”扩充为仁、义、礼、智四种品德，并提出性善论，认为每个人都天生具有仁义礼智的萌芽，为儒家的道德主张奠定人性论基础；他将孔子的“为政以德”顺应民心发展为包含思想、政治、经济一系列具体举措的“仁政”，最早提出“民贵君轻”思想，强调国家要以维护人民的利益为根本目标；他提倡国家间和谐稳定的关系应该以道德原则为基础，反对以力量强弱为基础； 他强调儒家所讲的仁爱面对不同对象时，要有次序和程度的差别。

北宋以后，孟子的地位不断上升，被尊崇为“亚圣”（仅次于“圣人”孔子），他的著作《孟子》对中国文化的发展产生了深远影响。

Mencius

Mencius (c. 372-289 B.C.) was a famous thinker and educator during the middle Warring States period (475-221 B.C.) and a representative figure of the Confucian school of thought after Confucius. He is often mentioned together with Confucius as "Confucius and Mencius". He shared many similarities with Confucius in life experiences, as both of them toured around the states without being appointed to significant posts. His important ideas and activities were compiled into the Mencius, a testament to his strong personality, eloquence, and fearless refusal to be in thrall to royal power.

During the Warring States period, various schools of thought emerged and challenged Confucianism, and Mencius took it upon himself to defend and develop Confucius' ideas through debates with scholars from other schools. He expanded Confucius' concept of benevolence to include righteousness, propriety, and wisdom. He also proposed the theory of innate goodness, suggesting that everyone had the potential for benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom, thus laying the foundation for the Confucian theory of human nature. He developed Confucius' idea of "virtuous governance" – which called for responsiveness to the people's aspirations – into that of "benevolent governance" to be incorporated into a range of specific initiatives of an ideological, political, and economic nature. He was also the first to argue for the need to place the interests of the people before those of the ruler, emphasizing that the state had the obligation to protect the interests of the people. He suggested that harmonious and stable inter-state relations should be based on moral principles rather than on strength, and emphasized that the Confucian concept of benevolence operated on different levels when applied to different sections of society.

After the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), Mencius continued to rise in status, and was revered as the "Second Sage" (second only to Confucius).  The Mencius also exerted a far-reaching influence on the development of Chinese culture.