A Study On Mencius’ Thought Of Discriminating Justice And Benefit

This paper mainly studies Mencius’ differentiation of justice and benefit.By studying the relationship between righteousness and public interest,private interest,benevolence,propriety and destiny,this paper aims to have a profound understanding of Mencius’ differentiation of righteousness and interest.Mencius believed that people should use righteousness as their motive for saying and doing things,rather than paying attention to the results of words and deeds.Mencius clearly regards righteousness as the starting point of the choice of righteousness and interests.Mencius’ thought of distinguishing justice and profit is to distinguish the connotation of justice and profit first."Righteousness" is the virtue of man.Profit is divided into "common interest" and "selfish interest".Secondly,righteousness is not only related to profit,but also to fate and propriety."Benevolence" and "righteousness" are both human virtues,and they interact with each other."Justice" is the basis of "rites",while "rites" is the form of "righteousness".When faced with a choice between "righteousness" and "profit",one should take righteousness as the foundation.In real life,whether people will get benefits or not is affected by fate.People should take the initiative to cultivate their virtue.A man should aim to be a saint.Mencius’ thought of distinguishing justice and interests has three levels in reality.First of all,interests before justice is put forward for the people.In Mencius’ s time,people could not get enough food and shelter,so it was more difficult for them to get education.Second,righteousness is for the gentleman to put forward.Mencius’ s expectation of a gentleman was that he would give up his life for the purpose of life at a critical moment.Third,righteousness before interest is put forward for the monarch.At that time,the monarch had a great deal of power.If the monarch cannot control his desires,it will lead to social unrest.Mencius’ idea was that the monarch should be kind and carry out good policies.In this way,the monarch can bring a lot of benefits to the people.