To what extent is the teaching of Mencius close to the original teaching of Confucius - Essay Example

With this concept, the two philosophers dealt with the ethical, sociopolitical, and philosophical systems, which developed from Chinese cultural teachings. It would be paramount to understand that this philosophy targeted by the two great Chinese teachers focused on the practical, especially the significance of the family and little did it give preference to the belief in deities or the possibility of afterlife (Richey 70). This is the rationale that these two philosophers believed that human capacity is teachable, can improve, and attain perfection through personal and communal endeavour.

They believed that the cultivation of virtue and maintenance of ethics would ultimately liberate the human capacity. It is in this capacity that Mencius developed Confucius former philosophical advances. Mencius himself bears the tag name Confucius, who lived in the 4th century. He converges his philosophical teaching with Confucius, the founder father in the line that human nature was all-good. This is the same observation that Confucius put across (Richey 83). In his own understanding, Confucius emphasized that the human nature is the one that forms governmental morality as well as modelling itself to attain that personal morality.

His virtue goes farther to touch on correctness of social relationships, justice, and sincerity. At this level, Mencius extends Confucius philosophy by acknowledging that human nature is alike. He uses the imagery of human as equated to tastes and flavours and points out that the human minds cannot be that different that there is nothing shared by other animal species. It is this concept that he wraps by suggesting that human nature ought to alike, just like the case of their minds. Mencius accepts the teachings of morality and virtue as formally extended by Confucius that human nature must appreciate morality just as the way their taste of buds appreciates great foods (Gardner 78).

A reader would not fail to realize the efforts of Mencius adoption of Confucianism philosophy since his perceptions allude that moral virtues such as humanity and righteousness come into existence through continual human efforts. When Mencius claims that there is no man who is not good and no one would stand to bear the suffering of others culminates to the very core concepts of Confucianism, the feeling that traces the integral and innate of humanness in the human race. Developing on the Confucian ethical human nature perhaps remains the greatest contribution of Mencius philosophy on Confucian learning.

The earlier reflection of Confucius described the possibility of ethical heaven and innate nature of ethical human beings. In his true words, Confucius believed that the existence of these ethical standards received supervision from heaven. In extending this proposition, Mencius agreed that an ethical human being, either achieved through personal strife or innate natures, ethical human being is a moral universe on his own (Richey 105). This explains the understanding of Mencius that ethical human nature and personal physical life are two related idealistic perspectives and to some extent have an innate connection.

Confucius put across these ideals. He argued that a man cultivates himself and thereby be able to draw peace and security to his fellow men. In an attempt to magnify his belief in the ethics of human nature, Confucius placed emphasis on individual’