A Study On The Reception Of Mencius From Mo-tse

As the unique phenomenon during the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States period,arguing and reasoning has become a way to spread ideology and thoughts.And it was promoted by Mo-tse,the founder of the Mohism,and widely used by different philosophers and authors.In order to publicize his social and political thoughts,Mo-tse went to different places and countries.And during the practice,he constantly enriched his ideological content and put forward a rigorous set of logical argument methods which made him famous during the philosophers.Mencius,another famous philosopher,had to stick up for the Confucianism by himself and reject the Mohism because of its the great influence.At the same time Mencius also absorbed and studied the Mohism because its rationality and the antiquated thoughts of Confucianism.After studying of "Mo-tse" and "Mencius",two books about the thoughts of Mencius and Mo-tse,the author find that Mencius absorbed the thoughts of Mo-tse of political views and the art of argument.This paper will focus on the two parts to discuss.On the content,Mencius mainly accepted Mo-tse's social and political thoughts,which is the question of how to be a wise king and its object of the persuasion is the monarch.Firstly the king should regard the God with reverence because the God give the highest position to the king and the God's will represent people's wish.Secondly the king should respect the talents.Mencius further expanded the scope and solved the problem of who should inheriting the throne,the talents or the king's sons.Thirdly the king should pay more attention to the people.About the attitude towards the people,Mencius suggested the government should give the people more time and property to help them become rich.Fourthly,the king should learn to deal the relationships with other countries.Mencius approved Mo-tse's attitude towards war and put forward his views on the non-attacking,killing for justice and the relationship between the great power and the mini-states.On the art of argument,Mencius relative comprehensively accepted the methods of arguing art and applied them into practice with the help of specific and logical methods from Mo-tse.In addition,the language of arguing from Mo-tse,especially the fables,was also absorbed by Mencius obviously.The reason why Mencius accepted the political views and the art of argument from Mo-tse is various.Firstly there are some inter-communities between the thoughts of Confucius and Mohist.Secondly the thoughts of Mohist have great influence on the age of Mencius.Thirdly,the personal experience and the view of the surrounding environment of Mencius lay the foundation for the reception.