Mencius - 9/18/2025
Contributors: Casey Bradley, HanXi, Ian Lee, Elisa Liu, Maika Ogawa, Frankie Lipman,
Emily Cui
These philosophers describe the world as it should be.
Background:
●​ Mencius was born after Confucius passed away
Ideas of Mencius
●​ Humans have a sprout of good because of instincts to protect children
○​ Humans are good but flawed
○​ He believes humans have 4 sprouts; compassion, disdain, deference, and
approval and disapproval
○​ He believes it is inhumane to not have a heart of these four sprouts, and
not being able to fill them all out they are then insufficient-especially to
serving ones parents
●​ 天(Heaven)命(TIAN MING) -> Mandate of Heaven
○​ King = Virtuous. If the King is killed, it’s because he’s no longer virtuous
●​ Views Confucius as greedy, lazy, and selfish I don’t think this bullet is correct Madison Henn
○​ Eats food that he doesn’t farm, wears clothes that he doesn’t weave
●​ Sprouts are a key metaphor for human nature
●​ 心 (xin): heart, feelings/to feel, organ of thought and feeling, mind, thoughts,
human nature, embodied cognition (gut)
○​ Common idea in pre-modern philosophy (both west and east)
○​ Schonebaum: Total sum of your experiences
Robber Zhi:
●​ Criticizes Confucius teachings because:
○​ It teaches people how to fail
○​ Confucius only teaches to show how great he is
○​ Confucius has too much of an emphasis on rituals that go against human
nature
○​ Confucians are lazy
○​ It’s distinctly unnatural and disregards human nature
○​ Confucius teaches with no real experience himself
Will be on the test:
仁人心也 - Benevolence is man’s heart
義人路也 - Righteousness is man’s road/path
舍弃路而弗由 - To abandon your road and not follow it
放其心而不知求 - To lose your heart and not know enough to seek it
人有鸡犬放 - If a person has a chicken and a dog and it goes missing
则知求之 - He knows to seek it
有放心 - But if your heart goes missing
而不知求 - You do not know enough to seek it
IMPORTANT (on every exam): What is the job of students?
The only job of learning is to seek your lost heart. That is all.
学问之道无他，求其放心而已
劳心者治人 - People who labor with their hearts govern others
劳力者治于人 - People who labor with their strengths are governed by others
-​ similar to Confucius’s idea of being a gentleman
劳 - Labor/work
者 - People who
治 - Govern/to cure (an illness)
人 - People
Mengzi (Mencius) - 9/25/2025
Contributors: Sander Houtman, HanXi, Viviana Parravano, Emily Cui
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Mo​
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Kong
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Yang
Meng
Mengzi talk a lot about Ming命 “FATE”
(Exile to Urumqi, Xinjiang was considered a death sentence)
-​ Ghosts can be “seductive”, get hit by weapons, and get killed
When someone is in need of immediate help (drowning) -> you help; this proves man is
benevolent.
When the world as a whole is drowning -> you follow confucian teachings to improve yourself
The human heart is related to Ox Mountain (childish heart is lost forever).
In the West, blood is life.
Qi <- energy, life, air (compared to blood in the west; except everything in nature has Qi)
If you are a good person, you will become healthier
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Tending to the sprouts story: A farmer in the Song Dynasty pulled on growing sprouts in
an effort to make them grow, which does not work.
-​ Metaphor for forcing growth and how it often does not work
-​ It’s in the nature of the sprouts to grow
Mozi and Mengzi are both against war for slightly different reasons
-​ Mozi - If defense is good, war won’t happen
-​ Mengzi - Against unjust wars
Fighting against war is like climbing a tree looking for fish (?) [Mengzi]
Expediency: if you must break the rules, this is alright (use your judgement)