How Confucius is depicted in Mengzi Texts

Mengzi: Welcome

Mengzi

Mengzi was a student of Confucius's disciple — Zisi (子思). With such a special background, Mengzi had a very high evaluation of Confucius. He regarded Confucius as the representative of the saints and believed that Confucius was the incarnation of the most ideal personality of Confucianism. He followed Confucius to travel around the country, expanded and carried forward the ideal of Confucianism through his own study. He made Confucianism enter a new period of development and was respected by future generations. Now we often used "Confucius and Mencius”(孔孟) to compare Confucius with him. His work “Mengzi”(孟子) is also one of the Confucian classics, which played a large role in promoting the social status of Confucius.

Mengzi: About

Mengzi & His Work

One thing to note is that there are thirty-seven chapters in “Mengzi” that record Confucius’ deeds and remarks. Since “Mengzi” is a prose style, there are very few specific descriptions of events like those in the Analects. In the thirty-seven chapters that mention Confucius in “Mengzi”, there are around twenty direct quotes from the Analects. However, although these images of Confucius describe the actual words and deeds of Confucius, Mengzi aimed to serve his own thought system, so he deliberately carried out several subtle transformations to improve the credibility and authority of his own ideas. It is true that Mencius's transformation of Confucius description is not drastic, but he deliberately avoided things that are contrary to his own thoughts. Therefore, the image of Confucius in "Mengzi" missed several real descriptions of laughing and cursing in "The Analects", and it is somewhat formatted and simplified. Confucius in Mengzi's words is almost perfect, and it seems Mengzi has gradually revealed Confucius’ characteristics as a saint.

Confucius was viewed as the incarnation of the virtues and motivations implicit in Kongzi yue material. There are many descriptions of Confucius as a complex or flexible figure. Mengzi 5B/1 is one such example, in which Confucius is described as "the timely one among the sages" (圣之时者也)—that is, someone whose behavior was determined by his circumstances:

When Kongzi departed Qi, he left before the rice was done cooking; when he left Lu, he said, “Slowly I go,” because it was the way to leave the state of one’s parents. If he could hasten it, he would hasten it; if he could pro- long it, he would prolong it; if he could stay in a single place, he would stay; if he could serve, he would serve—this was Kongzi.

孔子之去齐，接淅而行;去鲁，曰，迟迟吾行也，去父母国之道也。可以速而速，可以久而久，可以处而处，可以仕而仕，孔子也。

Here, Mengzi contrasts Confucius with Bo Yi (伯夷), Yi Yin (伊尹), and Liuxia Hui (柳下惠), three figures whose sageliness was distinguished by the distinctive characteristics of "purity" (qing清), "service" (ren任), and "harmony" (he和). Confucius is ultimately better to these other individuals in because he consolidated or "collected the tremendous accomplishments" (集大成) of previous sages.

Therefore, as the strong supporter and follower of Confucius, Mengzi focuses on the apotheosis of Confucius elevation. By reconstructing the image of Confucius in a perfect way, Mengzi has helped Confucius grow from a mortal toward the altar.

References:

1. Hunter, M. (2017). 2 a dozen perspectives on “Confucius” beyond the analects. Confucius Beyond the Analects, 96–164. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004339026_004

2. Liu, L. (2013). "How Confucius is depicted in early Confucianism literature."

Mengzi: About