Good Confucianism book (pdf) - Department of Physics

Mencius 95What makes a gentleman different from other people is that a gentlemanpreserves his mind/heart and does so through practicing humanity andritual. Mencius said, “ The difference between human beings and animals isvery small. Ordinary people frequently give up this difference; a gentlemanpreserves it ” 19 and “ A great man does not lose his child - like mind/heart. ” 20Preserving our original mind/heart depends on self - cultivation. This is asteady, daily growing of moral qualities within us. We do not suddenlybecome good people through enlightenment or salvation. Instead we needto be careful and thoughtful at all times, gradually becoming better in ouractions. We need to reflect on the situation and on what we are doing. Self -interest conflicts with moral behavior and self - interest must be overcome.But, this growth must not be forced.Mencius says that we must not be like the man from Song who wastroubled because his plants were not growing and so pulled at them. “ Whenhe returned home he said to his family, ‘ I am tired today because I havebeen helping the crops to grow. ’ His son hurried to look and found thatthe seedlings were dead. There are some who do not ‘ help their crop togrow ’ ; seeing no benefit in it, they do not weed their crop. Others ‘ help theircrop to grow ’ by pulling at it. This is not only of no benefit, but actuallyharmful. ” 21 Expecting perfect results in all our actions, “ helping the plantsto grow, ” will lead to failure. And when we fail, we will give up.Human Nature and HeavenMencius says that Heaven gives us humanity, dutifulness, conscientiousness,truthfulness to one ’ s word, and unending delight in what is good. Allthat people can give us are honors like titles and high position. 22 Menciuscarried his argument further by saying that our basic human nature containsthe potential for good because of its relation to Heaven. Only human beingscan reflect the goodness of Heaven. Heaven, for Mencius, is the metaphysicalbasis of morality. We already know Heaven is an ethical entity fromthe idea of the “ choice of Heaven. ” Heaven bases its choices on moralconsiderations, choosing, for example, a moral man to be the ruler andrejecting the immoral one.We will look more closely at what Mencius says about the relationshipbetween Heaven and human beings below, but here we can see that he hasargued for two, related, things. First, that morality is innate and unique tohuman beings. Second, Mencius has given morality a metaphysical basis.By arguing that human nature reflects the goodness of Heaven, Menciusputs morality on a foundation. Heaven itself is moral; human beings reflectthat morality. So moral behavior is not a matter of taste or point of view,it is natural to human beings and is based in Heaven itself.