Sage And Zhenren

This article had compared the ideality of life of Mencius and Zhuangcius, which are the representative character of Confucianism and Taolism. We had found they have many different characters and same characters. Firstly, their ideality of life were built on the base of humanness. Mencius believed every people have characteristic of kind. He used his theory of humanness to demonstrate the ideality of being a sage is not the engraftation from outside, but the demand of inner characteristic. Zhuangcius believed human are the outcome of nature. Therefore he opposed any intervention to people's nature characterstic. Though Mencius and Zhuangcius had different theory of humanness, they both advocated the regression to people's characteristic. Secondly, they both abundantly affirmed the dignity of personality, and advocated the transcendency to common life. The sage in Mencius' theory must try his best to realize the kingcraft ideality of Confucianism. He also must get ride of the domination of lust. He must be firm and persistent. Mencius believed if a man had been a sage, that means he had get the rank of nobility from the Heaven. The "Zhenren" of Zhuangcius must get ride of the domination of lust too. He also got ride of the bondage of life and death. He had understand the eternal Tao, and had made Tao become a part of himself. Thirdly, the ways to approach the aims of their ideality are both care the transcendency of the inner world. There are two phases in Mencius' ways: fostering the "qi" and fostering the heart. Fostering the "qi" is the accumulation of morality and justice. Fostering the heart is using the heart, which is the thinking organ, to explore the humanity which had been put in the heart before the birth of people. Zhuangcius' ways are divided into two groups: the positive way and the passive way. The "Unresolved-solution" is to give up the pursuit, which is exceeding your ability. "Fasting by heart". The first one is to forget the existence of time. Finally their ideality of life has different position in their thought system. The core of Mencius' system is his ideality of " Kingcraft". The sage in his system is the man who put the "Kingcraft". The core of Zhuangcius is the ideality of "Zhenren". The whole system of zhuangcius' ideality of life had greatly influenced the traditional culture of China for more than two thousand years.