Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Among Mencius's interests was the question of the nature of man.
Was man naturally and innately predisposed to good or bad behavior?
Mencius insisted that man is innately good and that he becomes bad as
he loses track of his innate goodness. This innate goodness he equated
with Confucius's ren and argued that every human being possesses ren
at birth, but many lose track of it as they grow older and confront the
pressing exigencies of life. But there are certain focused or critical
moments when our innately good nature can make itself powerfully
known. To illustrate his point, he asked his listeners to imagine a baby
crawling up to the mouth of a well and teetering on the brink, about to
fall in. Do we feel something when we imagine this? Of course we do:
we are horrified at the possibility of the baby falling in and would do
everything within our power to save it. These spontaneous feelings
show that the seeds of ren are still inherently within us even though
long obscured. To recover and cultivate this sense of ren,wesimply
have to discover and be true to our authentic selves. One might call
Mencius a ren philosopher.
Xunzi (c. 300-237 B.C.)
Xunzi disagreed with this position. He was acquainted with
Mencius's thoughts on the nature of man and rejected them. He
argued that man was innately bad and that the Confucian virtue of
ren was obtainable not through discovery of the authentic self, but
through the defeat of the authentic self by means of strictures and con-
ventions of rightness. These restrictions he equated with li and argued
that li is a necessary prescription to help man overcome his innately
bad nature. So ren came not through spontaneous self-discovery but
through repeated performance of, and submission to, li.Onemight
call Xunzi a li philosopher.
Ultimately the vast majority of Chinese concluded that Mencius was
right about this question and that Xunzi was wrong. Nevertheless,
Xunzi was and still is respected for wrestling with this most vexing
and pressing philosophical question.
TAOISM
Not everyone accepted Confucius's ideas. In fact, some Chinese
adamantly rejected them. The Taoists, in particular, regarded much of
Confucianism as suffocating and restrictive. Taoists were free-
spirited souls who saw in nature itself, rather than in any ritual or
inward human quality, the ultimate curative powers for political and
