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Mencius
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Mo-zi was born about ten years after the death of Confucius, and he died about twenty years before Mencius was born in 371 BC. He studied under the scholars of the growing Confucian school, but he became an independent religious teacher with several hundred devoted disciples. Living ascetically and preaching universal love, he criticized the Confucian philosophy for its excessive use of rituals, elaborate funerals and music, and what he believed to be its fatalism. Moism challenged Confucianism for prominence in China for two hundred years until it declined during the era of warring states before the violent founding of the Qin empire. Chinese Confucians rejected Mo's philosophy mostly because they believed that they should love their families more than other people; ... they disagreed with his philosophy of universal love. For most of its history since then China has been influenced by Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism.
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Like Mencius, Xunzi claims to interpret Confucius' thought authentically, but leavens it with his own contributions. While neither Gaozi nor Mencius is willing to entertain the notion that human beings might originally be evil, this is the cornerstone of Xunzi's position on human nature. Against Mencius, Xunzi defines human nature as what is inborn and unlearned, and then asks why education and ritual are necessary for Mencius if people really are good by nature. Whereas Mencius claims that human beings are originally good but argues for the necessity of self-cultivation, Xunzi claims that human beings are originally bad but argues that they can be reformed, even perfected, through self-cultivation. Also like Mencius, Xunzi sees li as the key to the cultivation of renxing.
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Mencius recommended that if farmers help each other to keep watch and nurse each other in illness, they will live in love and harmony. The way cannot be bent to please others; no one has ever straightened others by bending oneself. Mencius mentioned that the current teachings in the empire were those of Yang Zhu and Mo-zi. Yang Zhu taught everyone for oneself, and Mo-zi advocated love without making any preference for family. Mencius felt this was no better than beasts. Mencius believed that love of one's parents was the first step which could lead to peace in the empire.
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Mencius said: "Tsai Wo, Tzu Kung and Yu Jo all had enough wisdom to recognize a sage. If any one of them were in a low position, they would never have resorted to flattery to get something more desirable."
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Mencius said to the disciple Kâo, 'There are the footpaths along the hills;-- if suddenly they be used, they become roads; and if, as suddenly they are not used, the wild grass fills them up. Now, the wild grass fills up your mind.'
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Mencius continued: "Are all your rich and sweet foods not enough for your taste? Is your wardrobe of winter and summer clothes not enough for your body? Or do you not have enough fancy toys to satisfy your eyes? Or do you not have enough servants and concubines to come before you and satisfy you? All your numerous ministers can certainly get all these things for you, so how can you still want more of these?"
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