Literature & Ideas
Landmark
Mencius
372 – 289 BC
The second sage of Confucianism, who argued that human nature is good
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Why they are here
The most influential Confucian thinker after Confucius himself, whose book argued that people are born good and that rulers who oppress them lose the right to rule.
Mencius travelled between the warring states of his day advising rulers. He held that every person is born with the beginnings of goodness, which education should nurture, and that a ruler's legitimacy depends on the welfare of the people.
The Mencius became one of the Four Books that formed the core of Confucian education and of the imperial examinations from the fourteenth century until 1905.
The Mencius became one of the Four Books that formed the core of Confucian education and of the imperial examinations from the fourteenth century until 1905.
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