Term Paper on "Mencius and Xunzi"

Term Paper 5 pages (2204 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Mencius and Xunzi

Both these philosophers are part of the classical age of Chinese philosophy which occurred during the ending years of the Zhou or Chou dynasty. In Christian terms, this period is from 1045 BC to 256 BC. Historically during this period there were a lot of changes and due to the changes, the feudal states which earlier been controlled by the Zhou dynasty became independent after gaining required economic and military strength. There were many scholar officials during this period and one of the most important among them was Confucius and he was known in Chinese as Kungzi, or Kaung-tzu. He lived as a minor official in the state of Lu which is now in the Shandong province. He was an itinerant scholar-teacher during the late years of 5th century BC and early years of 4th century BC and was an advisor to the rulers of many states in his area. Being a scholar-savant the efforts of Confucius was to reform society and this was to be done through development of ethical behavior in humans. (Chinese Philosophy)

For this the rulers were an important group to be attended to as also the ministers as these people were the role models for the others. He never spoke directly on the issue of the nature of human beings, the rights of the people to act against tyrannical rulers and as to how the supernatural influenced human matters. This task was left to two of his disciples in 4th and 3rd century BC. These disciples are Mencius or Mengzi or Meng-Tzu in Chinese and Xunzi or Hsun-tzu. The development of these disciples was also different and Mencius said that human nature is originally good and it can develop further into a better nature through development and study. This was in line with the thoughts of Confucius, but brought in the concept of development of inborn or innate tendencies in human beings. Through his preaching, Mencius tried to look at the development of our inherent compassion for the sufferings of others, and our dislike for performance of anything wrong.

Regarding the Zhou rulers, Mencius believed that their position was under a Mandate from Heaven, and this belief was similar to that of Confucius. This concept of Heaven was as the supreme ruler of this world, somewhat like the Christian concept of God. This is not very far different from the beliefs in the presently Christian ruled states as they also believed that they had a mandate from God. The fact that it was a mandate from heaven made the ruler is accepted by the subjects. When the people finally got tired of misrule and overthrew the ruler, it was felt to be a proof that Heaven had withdrawn the support from the ruler. The situation was bad enough at that stage for Mencius to claim the right of rebellion for the people under the excuse of Heavenly directions. (Chinese Philosophy)

Regarding human nature, he always talked about human nature being good. The route followed by Mencius for arriving at this has three elements - teleology, a virtue theory and a moral psychology. The basic premise for all his arguments is that human beings have a heart-mind which feels for others. To prove this he appeals both to the reason and experience of humans. He appeals to human experience and says "Supposing people see a child fall into a well - they all have a heart-mind that is shocked and sympathetic. It is not for the sake of being on good terms with the child's parents, and it is not for the sake of winning praise for neighbors and friends, nor is it because they dislike the child's noisy cry." (Mencius (c. 372-289 BCE))

Yet this situation does not appeal to Mencius to give people any ideas about taking action on the situation presented by him of the bye-standers that he refers to. This is somewhat in line with other philosophers in china who noted that human beings had capacities for altruism as also total selfishness. At the same time, he analyses the situation further and looks at the four fundamental qualities of the human heart or mind - sympathy, shame, deference and judgment. These are the abilities that make human beings human, and according to him is also the reason why the human is the sprout or duan of the four main virtues of humans. Speaking in his words "A heart-mind that sympathizes is the sprout of co-humanity [ren]; a heart-mind that is aware of shame is the sprout of rightness [yi]; a heart-mind that defers to others is the sprout of ritual propriety [li]; a heart-mind that approves and condemns is the sprout of wisdom [zhi].... If anyone having the four sprouts within himself knows how to develop them to the full, it is like fire catching alight, or a spring as it first bursts through. If able to develop them, he is able to protect the entire world; if unable, he is unable to serve even his parents." (Mencius (c. 372-289 BCE))

The clear thinking by Mencius is however that human nature is good, whereas, Xunzi starts from the opposite premise that human nature is bad. For Mencius the process of self-cultivation is he development of our natural tendencies, whereas, according to Xunzi that these only lead to conflict and disorder and the need is to reform human nature. On the other hand they were both confident about the perfection that can be achieved in human nature, but the process required is different according to both. According to Xunzi, if the people are left to themselves then they will end up in conflict, disorder and poverty and their life will be poor, nasty, brutish and short. Later philosophers often are critical of Xunzi for the view that human nature is bad and prefer to accept the views of Mendius that people are by nature good. (Xunzi (Hsun Tzu) (310-220 BCE?)) Xunzi's belief is that people have within themselves no built in characteristics that are likely to make them virtuous. At the same time he believed that people could improve a lot with effort. His belief was that education, studying of classics and the practice of religious rituals gave individuals virtue and this could develop order within society. His argument was that shaping and expressing human emotions is best done through ritual practices which do not influence Heaven or ancestral spirits so much. (Chinese Philosophy)

At the same time, he should be viewed as a rationalist and who still felt that rituals had a role in society. His renown is dependent on his position that human nature is bad, and this is directly contradictory to Mencius. He has also got an article on Heaven where his position is directly different from the ideas of Confucius and Mencius. According to him, Heaven is not very concerned about human affairs. According to him Heaven is a part of the natural world, and there is no Mandate of Heaven. Heaven also does not influence events on earth and praying for rain is a waste of time. The beliefs in extraordinary natural events like comets are not any signs of Heaven's dissatisfaction with rulers. In short, the control of human beings is left to themselves and any belief that Heaven can help in this regard is not true. At the same time, he says that events like floods and droughts are controlled by Heaven and they affect humans, but these are not necessarily done with humans as the target. His view of Heaven is as being responsible for the state of affairs and not in the matter of creation of values. According to him, Heaven, earth and mankind are three independent areas with Heaven and Earth having no role in our morals. This means that humans have to live with whatever restrictions that they face due to Heaven and Earth, but their life depends on themselves and does not matter on Heaven. (Adler, Chinese Religious Traditions)

There are some similarities between Mencius and Xunzi in that the human nature is not different in humans, and nobody starting off with a set of morality. This is reflected in their views about two legendary kings of Yao and Jie. Yao was good and Jie was a tyrant, and the difference in them came from the way they brought themselves up. According to legends, Yao reformed his original nature, while Jie did not. This shows that even Xunzi believes that human beings can become perfect should they desire so. Though his original thought is that human nature bad, yet it still can be changed. He was quite confident about changes in human nature to overcome the demands that are built up in humans due to nature. This is a difference between Confucius and his disciples. Confucius believed that some people are better in nature at the beginning whereas the others believe that at start all are at the same level. (Xunzi (Hsun Tzu) (310-220 BCE?)) This leads us… READ MORE

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