The Study Of Mencius's Governce Thoughts

Since the 90s of the 20th century,with the rise of governance thoughts in the academic sector,the emergence of a variety of theories on governance is also very much.It's easy to find that there are many governance thoughts which are full of Chinese characteristics and suitable for China's national conditions in the traditional Chinese culture.For the sub-saint Mencius,the academic research has been voluminous,too numerous to mention,mainly concentrated in its good nature,moral cultivation theory,people-oriented thoughts and so on.Governance point of view provides a new direction for us to study Mencius's thoughts.And what kind of background did Mencius put forward his thoughts of governance?What is the main content of Mencius's governance thoughts,and how did he interpret?What theoretical basis and specific governance measures are included?What are the characteristics of Mencius's governance thoughts,what are the historical influences and contemporary values of Mencius's governance thoughts,and what are the deficiencies of Mencius's governance thoughts?How should we treat Mencius's thoughts of governance now?This paper will focus on the above issues,and try to answer.Mencius lived in the middle of the Warring States Period,in this period,the status of the Zhou dynasty royal declined and lost its command of the status of the world,the war between the vassal states continued,the etiquette system collapsed badly,and the social order disordered seriously.It was based on this social background,Mencius put forward his own unique characteristics of governance thoughts.Mencius's thoughts of governance mainly includes the following three aspects:the governance of "Tian",the governance of heart and the governance of society.Mencius's thoughts of governing "Tian" are his understanding of nature under his understanding of the relationship between "Tian" and human.There is only one "Tian"in Mencius's thoughts,but the meaning of "Tian" can be divided into the physical"Tian" and the philosophical "Tian".As the philosophical "Tian","Tian" is supreme,has a master and decisive role in man,of course,it can not be governed;but for the physical "Tian",people can governance it,which of course is under his views of the philosophical "Tian".This article holds that Mencius's thoughts of governing "Tian"can be divided into four levels:perceiving "Tian",conforming to "Tian",serving"Tian",and taking delight in "Tian".Mencius's thoughts of governing heart are based on his theory of good nature.Mencius developed a series of governing minds on the basis of goodness of heart.Mencius,through the debate with the counsel,based on the sociality of the people,put forward that "everyone has the goodness of heart",which is the "goodness conscience"and "goodness ability",and that "looking at the feelings,everyone can be good",illustrated the possibility of governing the human's heart.Mencius also put forward a series of methods and ways to govern people's heart:to seek for oneself,to set up the main body,to control the desire for cultivating the heart,to raise the spacious air,to save the night air,and so on.Finally,Mencius believed that the ideal personalities to govern the human heart are saint,official,gentleman,real man,scholar,and so on,which provided many moral examples for us to learn.Mencius's thoughts of governing society are the development of the idea of the unity of man and nature and the idea of good human nature in the field of social politics.The benevolent government is the general principle and objective of Mencius's thoughts of governing society.The specific governance measures are divided into economic governance,political governance and cultural governance.The principle of economic governance is to enrich the people and give favor to the people.The government should help people raise their production,do not violate the agricultural time;light tax and thin convergence,be limited to collect wealth from the people;practice the well-field system;and treat social division of labor theory that "the mental workers rule people and the manual laborer is ruled by others" correctly.The principle of political governance is to take care of people and to pay attention to people,the government should establish the principle of benevolent politics and using the means of peace;establish the opposite relationship between monarch and ministers;pay proper way to neighboring countries.The principle of cultural governance is to respect etiquette and teaching,and teach people to adhere to the humanistic enlightenments;use family education and social education together;and pay attention to etiquette system specifically.The governance of "Tian",the governance of heart and the governance of society are closely linked and inseparable.Compared with the western governance thoughts,Mencius's thoughts of governance are more complete and full of Chinese and Confucian characteristics,which can make up for the deficiency of western governance thoughts and provide a useful reference for it.Because of the limitation of the times,Mencius's governance thoughts also have some shortcomings,but on the whole,it provides a very useful contribution to building the unique governance theory of Confucianism,establishing the excellent spiritual tradition and the Chinese nation's ne character,and stabilizing the governance order of traditional society,and it can also provide useful modern inspirations for current national governance thoughts,it is worth to carefully study and deeply dive.