Discuss The History Of The Mencian Theory Of Human Nature

As for the thought of "goodness of nature",through the investigation of handed down and unearthed documents,we can find a very obvious route of thought: Confucian mind-nature theory(the inner vein of morality)is continuously absorbed from the top down,from the outside to the inside.This route can be roughly divided into three periods: A.from the early Western Zhou Dynasty to Confucius;B.Confucius to the Doctrine of the Mean;C.Mencius.The first period is the period in which "heaven" gradually changes from the religious nature of personality and deity to the source of human moral norms.Although "heaven" in this period has a deep relationship with people’s moral behavior,but this relationship is only an external relationship.For human beings,morality is an external standard and constraint.Morality does not really come from human beings.At this time,"heaven" is called "law heaven".In the second period,Confucius gave full play to the idea of "benevolence",interpreted rites by virtue of benevolence and paid equal attention to benevolence and rites,and internalized the external moral norms,so as to make moral behaviors truly relate to people and open up the inner spiritual world of people.As a document of "between Confucius and Mencius",the five Elements of bamboo slips deepens Confucius’ work of internalizing morality,but in terms of ideological style,it also shows a transitional nature--paying attention to double moral norms.The thought reflected in the Five Elements is an indispensable theoretical preparation for Mencius’ theory of the goodness of nature,and the unearthing of the five Elements itself makes the historical track of Mencius’ theory of the goodness of nature clearer.The Doctrine of the Mean begins with "the nature of destiny",which clarifies the relationship between "nature" and "human nature",makes it clear that human nature comes from nature and destiny is human nature,and confirms that human moral value is rooted in nature.Unfortunately,the author has not been able to point out the word "good nature",so he has not been able to continue to ask what is the essence of good nature.Following the development logic of Confucius and the Doctrine of the Mean,Mencius reasonably pointed out that people’s "nature is good",and further concluded that moral activities can be regarded as the expansion of the four ends of the mind.So far,in theory,it shows that the real moral is the moral of human beings,which is the behavior of human consciousness and humanity.Human beings really become the subject of moral practice,and moral activities become the voluntary behavior decided by human beings without needing to seek outside themselves.Mencius completed the thought route of Confucianism from top to bottom and from outside to inside by virtue of his "good nature",and transformed moral activities into autonomous behaviors from inside to outside and from bottom to top.