Glimpse: Kongshu The Overall Concept Of Thinking. "mencius"

Based on the classics Mencius, this article discusses on the holistic method of thinking of Mencius.In the holistic method of thinking, we can find many aspects such as inner and outer, ego and others, family and nation, private and public, single person and multitude, knowing and acting, heart and substance. While to the words in Mencius, the aspects they referred to are limited. So at first, the author discusses on some important angles of the holistic method of thinking in the first three parts of this article.The first part of this article discusses on Mencius' ideal of "becoming the king of the world". In the sequence of the time, the author analyzes Mencius' words in Kingdom Song, Teng, Wei and Qi. Facing different kingdoms and dictators, Mencius seemed to talk different topic according to the nature of dictator and the context. But in essence, Mencius always focused on his theory of "do the humane politics, then you will become the king of the world". Due to his holistic method of thinking, the practical steps of economic policy that Mencius occasionally mentioned became useless because they were part of an holistic solution and Mencius considered all his words right while that of others wrong. Mencius' theory of "do the humane politics, then you will become the king of the world" was simple, but that does not meant it was feasible. Be short of the consideration of the contemporary and nation organization, Mencius always simplified complex political problems into the matter of ethic and then made a dichotomy conclusion. His seemingly ideal design then was just imagination and the theory he adhered to only led him into failure repeatedly.The second part of this article discusses on Mencius' theory of "family and nation are one". It is not his invention, but we can find this theory had a severe influence on Mencius, which was also part of his holistic method of thinking. On the one hand, Mencius believed when you made your family harmonic, you could then administer the nation and even the world well. On the other hand, the nation in Mencius' word were just like a family, where the hierarchy can't be altered, the nation organization was loose and the bylaw was just appendix of dictators.The third part of this article discusses on Mencius1 theory of "knowing and acting are one" and "heaven and human are one", which were the theoretical basis of his holistic method of thinking. In his theory, heart can link itself with the heaven and become the outer action naturally. A transcendental heart were also the facility when Mencius and the Confucians in Song and Ming dynasty constructed the "pedigree of sages".After discussing on some important angles of the holistic method of thinking, the forth part of this article focus on a short section of Mencius, which was Chun-Yu Kun asked if the male and female could not contact each other. Beginning with Mencius' favorite analogism, which get the justification from his holistic method of thinking, the author analyze this section throughout and then show the limitation of the holistic method of thinking.The holistic method of thinking was not the whole of Mencius. On the contrary, we can find many words in it, which defy the explanation of the holistic method of thinking and behind them were the truth of history and reality. On the last part of this article, the author discusses on this and shows the inanition of the holistic method of thinking.