{ "contentStorage": "postgres", "title": "Mencius · Relations", "description": "Mencius (Meng Ke) was a Warring States thinker from Zou in present-day Shandong and a leading figure of Confucianism. Later generations honoured him as the “Second Sage”, and he is commonly named together with Confucius as “Kong-Meng”; the book Mencius is attributed to him and his disciples.", "url": "/en/people/mencius/relation.html", "entity": { "id": "person_cn_q188903", "type": "person", "title": "Mencius", "slug": "mencius", "summary": "Mencius (Meng Ke) was a Warring States thinker from Zou in present-day Shandong and a leading figure of Confucianism. Later generations honoured him as the “Second Sage”, and he is commonly named together with Confucius as “Kong-Meng”; the book Mencius is attributed to him and his disciples.", "status": "published", "categories": [ "category-history", "category-people", "category-historical-figures" ], "tags": [ "tag-ancient-china" ], "sources": [ { "id": "wikidata", "title": "Wikidata Q188903", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q188903" }, { "id": "zhwiki", "title": "孟子（维基百科）", "url": "https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%AD%9F%E5%AD%90" }, { "id": "zhengshi", "title": "史記/卷074（维基文库）", "url": "https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E5%8F%B2%E8%A8%98/%E5%8D%B7074" } ], "createdAt": "2026-10-25T00:00:00+08:00", "updatedAt": "2026-10-30T13:41:43+08:00", "updatedBy": "user:admin", "revision": 6, "body": "Mencius (Meng Ke) was a native of Zou (邾国, also called 邹国; present-day Zoucheng, Shandong) and a leading figure of Confucianism. He studied under the disciples of Zisi, carried on and developed the teaching of Confucius, and argued for the goodness of human nature, benevolent government and the kingly way. Later generations honoured him as the “Second Sage” (Yasheng), and he is usually named together with Confucius as “Kong-Meng”.[^zhengshi][^zhwiki]\n\n## Official history\n\n\u003e 孟軻，騶人也。受業子思之門人。道既通，游事齊宣王，宣王不能用。適梁，梁惠王不果所言，則見以為迂遠而闊於事情。……退而與萬章之徒序詩書，述仲尼之意，作孟子七篇。\n\n— Biographies of Mencius and Xun Qing, *Records of the Grand Scribe*[^zhengshi]\n\n## Life\n\nMencius was a man of Zou. His forebears came from the Mengsun lineage of the ducal house of Lu; after the fief of Cheng was taken by Qi, the lineage scattered and the branch to which Mencius belonged moved to Zou. He studied under the disciples of [[person_cn_q1147803|Zisi]]; as Zisi died decades before Mencius was born, the account in the *Records of the Grand Scribe* that he studied with Zisi’s disciples is the more credible one.[^zhwiki]\n\nFollowing the example of [[person_cn_q4604|Confucius]], he travelled with his disciples to persuade the rulers of the states. In Qi he served King Xuan, who did not use him; in Liang King Hui did not act on his words and regarded them as remote from practical affairs. Qin was then employing Shang Yang, Chu and Wei Wu Qi, and Qi the followers of Sunzi and Tian Ji, so that the states devoted themselves to vertical and horizontal alliances and to war, while Mencius spoke of the virtue of Tang, Yu and the three dynasties; for that reason he found little acceptance wherever he went. In old age he retired and, with Wan Zhang and other disciples, put in order the *Book of Songs* and the *Book of Documents*, expounded the ideas of Confucius and composed the *Mencius* in seven chapters.[^zhengshi]\n\n## Thought\n\nMencius began from the thesis that human nature is good. He held that people are born with the hearts of compassion, shame, deference and right and wrong — the “four beginnings” of benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom. Anyone who suddenly sees a child about to fall into a well feels alarm and compassion, not out of a wish to win the parents’ favour or a good name among neighbours and friends. People who do wrong have lost their original heart, so he urged them to recover it.[^zhwiki]\n\nIn politics he argued for benevolent government and the kingly way, holding that a ruler should extend his heart that cannot bear the suffering of others to government: “treat the aged of your own family as aged, and extend this to the aged of others; treat the young of your own family as young, and extend this to the young of others.” He also taught that “the people are the most important, the state comes next, and the ruler is the lightest”, since the allegiance of the people decides whether a regime endures. He stressed righteousness over profit and discussed self-cultivation in terms of the “flood-like qi”.[^zhwiki]\n\n## Works\n\nThe *Mencius* in seven chapters — Liang Hui Wang, Gong Sun Chou, Teng Wen Gong, Li Lou, Wan Zhang, Gaozi and Jin Xin — each in two parts.[^zhwiki]\n\n## Later standing\n\nThe *Bibliographic Treatise* of the *History of the Han* placed the *Mencius* among the masters, as a work of one school rather than a classic. In the Tang, Han Yu’s *Essentials of the Moral Tradition* presented Mencius as the sole heir of Confucius’s transmission, and his standing rose from then on. In 1083, the sixth year of Yuanfeng, he was posthumously enfeoffed as Duke of Zou and the next year was approved for sacrifice in the Confucian temple; in 1330, the first year of Zhishun, he was granted the title Duke of Zou, the Second Sage, and has since been called the “Second Sage”, second only to Confucius. Zhu Xi of the Southern Song joined the *Mencius* with the *Analects*, the *Great Learning* and the *Doctrine of the Mean* as the Four Books, and the work was also counted among the Thirteen Classics.[^zhwiki]\n\nTradition holds that the Ming founder Zhu Yuanzhang, displeased by Mencius’s populist ideas, had Liu Sanwu and others abridge the text as the *Abridged Mencius*.[^zhwiki]\n\n## Basic facts\n\n- Name: Meng Ke[^wikidata][^zhwiki]\n- Born: 372 BC[^wikidata]\n- Died: 289 BC[^wikidata]\n- Birthplace: [[place_cn_370883|Zoucheng]][^wikidata]\n\n## Works\n\n- [[work_cn_q1195444|Mencius]][^wikidata]", "url": "/people/mencius.html", "lang": "en", "availableLangs": [ "zh", "en" ], "birth": { "year": -372, "display": "372 BC" }, "death": { "year": -289, "display": "289 BC" } }, "entities": null, "relations": [ { "id": "relation_cnworks_by_q1195444_q188903", "fromId": "work_cn_q1195444", "relationType": "created_by", "toId": "person_cn_q188903", "sourceRefs": [ { "entityId": "work_cn_q1195444", "sourceId": "wikidata" } ], "label": "Created works", "targetId": "work_cn_q1195444", "targetTitle": "Mencius", "targetUrl": "/en/works/mencius.html", "incoming": true }, { "id": "relation_cnpeople_born_q188903", "fromId": "person_cn_q188903", "relationType": "born_in", "toId": "place_cn_370883", "note": "出生地为战国邾国（邹国），在今山东省邹城市", "sourceRefs": [ { "entityId": "person_cn_q188903", "sourceId": "wikidata" } ], "label": "Born in", "targetId": "place_cn_370883", "targetTitle": "Zoucheng", "targetUrl": "/en/places/zoucheng.html", "incoming": false } ], "mentions": [ { "fromId": "place_cn_370883", "fromTitle": "Zoucheng", "fromUrl": "/en/places/zoucheng.html", "fromType": "place" }, { "fromId": "work_cn_q1195444", "fromTitle": "Mencius", "fromUrl": "/en/works/mencius.html", "fromType": "work" } ], "relationGroups": [ { "type": "created_by", "label": "Created works", "items": [ { "id": "relation_cnworks_by_q1195444_q188903", "fromId": "work_cn_q1195444", "relationType": "created_by", "toId": "person_cn_q188903", "sourceRefs": [ { "entityId": "work_cn_q1195444", "sourceId": "wikidata" } ], "label": "Created works", "targetId": "work_cn_q1195444", "targetTitle": "Mencius", "targetUrl": "/en/works/mencius.html", "incoming": true } ] }, { "type": "born_in", "label": "Born in", "items": [ { "id": "relation_cnpeople_born_q188903", "fromId": "person_cn_q188903", "relationType": "born_in", "toId": "place_cn_370883", "note": "出生地为战国邾国（邹国），在今山东省邹城市", "sourceRefs": [ { "entityId": "person_cn_q188903", "sourceId": "wikidata" } ], "label": "Born in", "targetId": "place_cn_370883", "targetTitle": "Zoucheng", "targetUrl": "/en/places/zoucheng.html", "incoming": false } ] } ], "lang": "en", "availableLangs": [ "zh", "en" ], "infoFields": [ { "key": "birth_date", "label": "Birth", "value": "372 BC" }, { "key": "death_date", "label": "Death", "value": "289 BC" } ], "pagination": { "page": 1, "pageSize": 50, "total": 2, "pageCount": 1 }, "relationsTotal": 2, "mentionsTotal": 2 }