Exclusive🌿 Mengzi or Mencius | Why did Mencius want to divorce his wife?

The name Mencius, like the name Confucius, is a nationalized version of Mengzi, master Meng. His real name was Mengke. His courtesy name was Ziyu. Later generations put Confucius and Mencius together and called it the way of Confucius and Mencius. When it comes to Mencius, Chinese people will think of a sentence in San Zi Jin, the three-character classic. Mencius' mother, in order to ensure a good environment for her son's upbringing, moved three times, and the last time she moved to a place near a school. Once Mencius was transformed from school, his mother responded to this by taking up a pair of scissors and cutting the cross she had been weaving for days in front of him. After doing so, she explained to him that one could not stop a task halfway or he will waste all his previous efforts. Among the Chinese, the mother of Mencius has been for ages upheld as the model mother. Mencius did not disappoint his mother. He had for his mentor a pupil of Zisi, who was himself the grandson of Confucius, who had lived roughly two centuries earlier. Mencius inherited and carried forward the ideas of Confucius and became a Confucian master and sage, second only to Confucius. Indeed, Mencius' life was similar to that of Confucius. Like Confucius, Mencius was only three when he lost his father. His mother raised him and had a great influence on his life. His home state Zhou was adjacent to Lu, the state of Confucius' origin. He inherited the Confucian orthodoxy in all its purity. Mencius seemed to have lived quietly, becoming among the most renowned Confucian teachers of his age until around 312 BC, when he decided that it was time to renew Confucius' active effort to persuade the rulers of the increasingly violent Warring States era to accept the Confucianism and govern by Ren benevolence. He finally became an advisor to the King of Qi, a strong state that occupied territory northeast of Lu and Zhou. It is said that the King of Qi had a thousand shi in his employ. During the Warring States era, men traveled from court to court to advertise their special wisdom or skill, seeking a ruler who would make use of their services. These men were called shi. Confucius is generally regarded as the initial example of this type of traveling shi. But to his dismay, soon Qi launched a war to conquer Yan, another major state just to the north. Prior to launching the war, it seems that the King lured Mencius into appearing to approve his aggressive attack. Mencius apparently concluded that his appointment was actually no more than a public relations ploy on the part of Qi to justify its power play in Yan by claiming the endorsement of the most famous Confucian sage of the time. He resigned his position in despair, retired to his home state, while he lived the rest of his life as a teacher. As was discussed before, Confucianism emphasized the essential importance of mastering behavioral forms characteristic of the sages who had created civilization, forms we call ritual or li in Chinese. Confucians regarded these forms as the key to the future restoration of order that had characterized the initial ages of the three dynasties and the primordial era of sagely rule. For example, Mencius said, if you wear the clothes of Yao, chant the words of Yao, and act the acts of Yao, you are simply Yao. If you wear the clothes of Jie, chant the words of Jie, and act the acts of Jie, you are simply Jie. When it comes to ritual or li, there is such an anecdote about Mencius wanting to divorce his wife because of improper sitting posture. According to records, Mencius' wife Tian Shi was alone in the inner room, sitting and resting at a wheel. Mencius suddenly entered the room and saw his wife sitting with her legs spread apart. He came out of the room and said to his mother, this woman has no manners, please allow me to divorce her. His mother asked, why did you say that? Mencius said, she is sitting with her legs spread apart. The mother asked, how did you know? Mencius replied, I saw it as soon as I entered the room. The mother said, in this case, it's you who didn't know adequate, not your wife. Doesn't the Book of Rites say that when entering a room, first ask the people in the room. Eyes should look down so as not to see other people's privacy. Your wife didn't know you were coming in and wasn't ready to greet you. You have to respect others first. You were rude in the first place. Why do you blame others instead? Mencius felt ashamed and gave up the idea of divorcing his wife. In ancient Chinese adequate, people should have different postures on different occasions. Even between husband and wife, there are family adequates. Husband and wife treat each other with courtesy and respect each other as guests in daily life. Ritual or Li is one of the most important concepts for the Mencius and for all Confucian texts. Confucians were, as a group, professional experts in traditional ritual and they viewed Li as a key to self-perfection and transformation of the world. The book Mencius was jointly compiled by Mencius and his disciples. It records his doings and sayings and contains statements on the goodness of human nature. Mencius is probably most famous for his claim that humans were, by nature, morally good. Mencius said in them a moral sense that cannot bear the suffering of others. He also gave an example, saying, imagine now a person who all of a sudden sees a small child on the verge of falling down into a well. Any such person would experience a sudden sense of fright and dismay. This feeling would not be something he summoned up in order to establish good relations with the child's parents. He would not purposefully feel this way in order to win the praise of their friends and the neighbors. Nor would he feel this way because the screams of the child would be unpleasant. By imagining the situation, we can see that one who lacks a sense of dismayed commiseration in such a case simply cannot be a person. Moreover, anyone who lacks a sense of shame cannot be a person. Anyone who lacks a sense of right and wrong cannot be a person. The sense of commiseration is the seed of humanity. The sense of shame is the seed of righteousness. The sense of deference is the seed of ritual. And the sense of right and wrong is the seed of wisdom. Mencius holds that all humans have innate but insipid tendencies toward benevolence, righteousness, wisdom, and propriety. A few decades after his death, the last of the great pre-Qing Confucians, Xunzi challenged him with the counterclaim that human nature is bad. And in his own era, Mencius' views were criticized by the Taoist Zhuangzi. After all, Confucianism confronts the real society and strives to explore a way to transform the objective world. Ultimately, it is for the governance of the country and the peace of the world. Taoism also faces a cruel reality but goes deep into the depths of the human heart and seeks a life path of self-salvation from nature and returning to the Tao. Both Laozi and Zhuangzi are hermits, while Confucians and Mencius are far from the life experience of hermits. Therefore, many ancient Chinese literati were able to enter the world as Confucianism and to emerge from the world as Taoism. Sarah's History of China. See you soon.