On The Origin Of Evil In Mencius Philosophy

In the philosophy of Mencius,the thought of the good nature occupies a heavy color.In contrast,the source of evil seems to have not been given due attention.Although scholars related to Confucianism and Mencius’ thought have more or less seen the phenomenon of evil in Mencius’ texts,most of them tend to attribute it to the failure of moral cultivation or the influence of external environmental factors,without in-depth interpretation.Although Mencius himself firmly held the position of the goodness of nature,the controversy about the goodness of nature has not been settled.It is not difficult to find that Mencius’ thoughts on the goodness of nature are based on his unique "theory of the nature of mind".What the goodness of human nature emphasizes is that people have the nature of mind,the nature of mind is good,and the nature of mind has the inclination and desire for the goodness.However,the inherent goodness of nature and the pursuit of goodness do not guarantee that the behavior is necessarily good in practice,and many moral failures in the concrete implementation process are "evil".Specifically,the "evil" in Mencius’ philosophy can be divided into "congenital evil" and "heart evil",and the source of these evil mainly lies in individual lust,cognition,will and other factors.First of all,Mencius’ theory of the Goodness of nature also investigated the dark tendency in human nature and human relations.On the one hand,human nature itself contains dark factors--natural desires such as food and sex,which are natural tendencies leading to evil.Mencius’ theory of human nature itself contains the dual starting point of compassion and natural desire.If the desire is allowed to develop,it will produce "evil".On the other hand,compassion itself has a double danger,the loss of compassion emotional indifference,will lead to such as Liang Hui King’s "unkind" evil;The measure of rudeness,which is only emotional,can also cause the evil of personal insult to the recipient of the act.Secondly,the human mind has the dual functions of "thinking" and "judging".Mencius’ thinking takes the concrete situation practice as the trigger condition,the conscience as the object of thinking,and the construction of moral subject as the ultimate goal.If the situation is not promoted or the degree of thinking is not enough,it will lead to the moral failure of "changing sheep for cows".If the degree of thinking is not enough,it will not be able to blame the evil.And "clinging to one" and "clinging to no power" will also lead to evil in moral behavior and practice.Finally,the moral will in Mencius philosophy takes benevolence and justice as the specific direction,which has important requirements for moral consciousness.If the actor himself is ignorant of the basic moral consciousness of shame,it will lead to the moral failure of the native people,for example.A weak will will lead to the "king is not king" type of moral failure.