Mencius’ Inlfuence And Development On Confucian Ritual Thought

Confucian Ritual Thought occupies a pivotal position in traditional Chinese culture system of thought.Confucius, Mencius and Xunzi are representatives of the pre-Qin Confucian rite-music culture heritage; theritual is one of the most important categories in the pre-Qin Confucianism system. Mencius inherited andcarried forward many of the ideas of Confucius and the pre-Qin thoughts and systematized the "ritual"system. Then he put forward many ground-breaking and unique perspectives of the individual point of viewideas, many of them have become "ritual" concepts which have far-reaching impact on future generations.This paper makes a systematic exposition about Ritual Thought of Mencius. This paper is divided intothree main parts: Firstly, there is a brief narration about the origins of Ritual Thought from vertical angle.Secondly, this paper refines some important ideas according to the Chapters that refers to＂ritual＂fromMencius Ritual Thought of Mencius and makes a comparison about the concepts of ritual from Confuciusand Mencius. This comparison illustrates that Mencius has not only inherited the Ritual Thought, but alsoattached great importance to ritual studies. More importantly, in the Warring States’ serious situation of"rites collapsed and music disappeared ", Mencius made an adaptation to circumstances depending onRitual Thought of Confucius. That would elevate Confucianism Ritual Thought to a new height. Finally, itnarrates Mencius’ development of Ritual Thought of Confucius. Then at Xunzi age, Ritual Thought wasable to be systematic. At the same time, Ritual thought reached the highest peak of thoughts of Pre-Qin.