On the morning of September 13th, Confucius Research Instiute held the “Academic Salon” Activity 2017 of reading the Book of Mencius, the related researchers discussed around the theme of Establishing Oneself with Benevolence, Taking Propriety and Righteousness as the Door and Path——Mencius’ Philosophical Outlook, the director of academic research department and researcher Kong Xiang’an presided over the whole salon.
As the the keynote speaker, assistant researcher of academic exchange department Cui Haiying pointed out the characteristics of the Warring States Period, that is, the rites and music collapsed, people fought for power and interest, turned against credit and justice, the society got turbulent. Then, he put up that Mencius “discoursed how the nature of man is good, and when speaking, always made laudatory reference of Yao and Shun”, and analysed the origin of Mencius’ benevolent and just doctrine of “studying from Confucius, following Emperor Wen and Wu as teachers and assisting the ruler so as to make him into a saint like Yao and Shun”, and comprehensively elucidated Mencious ritual world of “learning both sound in theory and practice”. At last, he pointed out that discoursing how the nature of man is good implies that people are born to have the potential of goodness, and Mencius’ doctrine on humanity constitutes the theoretical foundation of his “benevolent governance” theory.
Kong Xiang’an summarized that as a great thinker in the Warring States Period, Mencius inherited Confucius’ thought on “benevolence”, emphasized people’s subjectivity and social value, holding that the key to solving social problem lies in people and people’s heart; and further he thought over and explored humanity, and pointed out the way of establishing oneself for people, that is, taking Benevolence, Propriety and Righteousness as the house, door and path. Meanwhile, Mencius put up a good policy to govern the country by practing “benevolent governance”, requiring the ruler to cultivate themselves and set a good example, “if the sovereign be benevolent, all will be benevolent. If the sovereign be righteous, all will be righteous. The upright sovereign could bring peace to the whole state”. Therefore, Mencius advocated benevolent governance by regulating the livelihood of the people and guiding people to follow goodness, and finally achieving the effect of becoming “an internal saint and external king”.
The participants discussed around the theme of the salon and the Confucian issues such as the broad cultural background of Shandong province, the origin of Mencius’ clan, the consistent thought and essence of the Book of Mencius, the language style and the connective status of the Book of Mencius and so on. They agreed that this salon closely centered on the academic classic, the analysis was systematic, orderly and thorough, analyzed the rich connotation of Mencius world from different angles, and have enlightening significance to grasp the connotation and development of the Book of Mencius in the macro sense.
This salon is one of the contents of series of activities of “reviewing the four Confucian classical books and laying a solid foundation” in the “academy improvement year” 2017. It aims at promoting the further development of Confucianism study and spread, deepening academic study, encouraging the academic discussion, improving the staff’s academic and lecture capacity, and creating strong academic atmosphere.
