What are the stories about Mencius? How did Mencius die in history?

Thousands of years ago, there was a sage named Confucius. In order to practice his teachings, he traveled around the world in troubled times just to promote his teachings. Although he returned without success, what he did was For people who deeply influenced future generations. Mencius, the successor who followed in his footsteps and continued to practice Confucianism, moved forward resolutely even though he knew the hardships he would face and even if he would be hit with a bloody head.

Mencius (372 BC - 289 BC), named Ke, whose name is not recorded in ancient books before the Han Dynasty, was born in Zoucheng, Shandong. Mencius was a famous thinker, educator in ancient China, and a representative figure of Confucianism during the Warring States Period. Author of "Mencius". It is a work that records the words and deeds of Mencius and his disciples. He inherited and carried forward Confucius' thoughts and became a generation of Confucian masters second only to Confucius. He was known as the "Senior Sage" and was collectively called "Confucius and Mencius" with Confucius.

The middle period of the Warring States Period when Mencius lived was more rebellious than the late Spring and Autumn Period when Confucius lived. Although he was in troubled times, he was able to stick to his own opinions and be a firm practitioner of Confucianism. Like Confucius, Mencius also led students to travel to Wei, Qi, Song, Lu, Teng, Xue and other countries, and once served as a guest of King Xuan of Qi. Since his political ideas were not very attractive to the vassal states, he returned to his hometown to gather disciples to give lectures, wrote books with his student Wan Zhang and others, and continued the unfinished wishes of Confucius and himself.

The life of Yasheng Mencius was extremely wonderful. His life was a life full of wisdom, and the sparks of his thinking burst out in the process of communicating with others. The founder of the terracotta warriors, the three moves of Mencius’ mother, etc. We can still hear stories about him to this day.

The originator

The definition of "the originator" in the dictionary is: the person who first made the figurines for burial, which is a metaphor for the founder of bad customs. Although this idiom comes from the mouth of the sage Confucius, Confucius once said: "The one who first made the figurines has no descendants." It means: The person who first made the figurines for burial must have no descendants and no descendants! The words come from Confucius, but this idiom comes from "Mencius: King Hui of Liang, Part 1". ? During the Warring States Period, Mencius and King Hui of Liang once discussed how to govern the country. Mencius said to him: "Why does the king need to talk about profit? There is only benevolence and righteousness." King Hui of Liang said: "I am willing to accept the teaching." Mencius said to him: "What is the difference between killing people with a stile and a knife?" He said: "No "Is there any difference between using a blade and politics?" He said: "There is no difference."

In this brief conversation, Mencius asked King Hui of Liang: "Using a wooden stick to kill people." Does it make any difference if a knife kills a person?" The king replied: "There is no difference." Mencius continued: "There are many meats in the king's kitchen, and there are many strong horses in the king's stables. Death by hunger. This is when the person in power leads the wild beasts to eat people. It is disgusting for wild beasts to eat each other, let alone the king of a country who brings wild animals to eat people. Confucius once said that the first person to use figurines for burial is the one who has no descendants. Well, it’s not okay to bury people with human-shaped clay dolls, so how can we let the people starve to death?” This is the story of the instigator.

Fifty steps to laugh at a hundred steps

This story still happened to Mencius and King Hui of Liang. During the Warring States Period, the vassal states made distant contacts and attacked closely, and adopted the strategy of joining forces vertically and horizontally, and fought successively. As a result, the people were in dire straits. Seeing this, Mencius felt pity for the people very much. Seeing this situation, Mencius decided to travel around the country and implement benevolent government. Mencius came to Liang State and met the warlike King Hui of Liang. King Hui of Liang said: "I have worked really hard to govern the country. There was a famine in Hanoi, so I moved the people there to Hedong, and at the same time transported the grain from Hedong to Hanoi. The famine in Hedong was exactly the same. I have inspected the political affairs of neighboring countries, and no one is as dedicated as me. But I see that the number of people in my country has not increased, and the number of people in neighboring countries has not decreased.

Mencius replied: "Your Majesty likes war, so please let me use war as a metaphor.

The battle was stalemate, and soldiers were fighting hand to hand. Some soldiers threw down their armor and dragged their weapons and fled backwards. Some soldiers stopped after running a hundred steps, but those who stopped after running fifty steps laughed at those who took a hundred steps. May I? King Liang Hui returned and said, "Isn't this a joke?" Fifty steps is still running, and a hundred steps is still running. Their nature is to run away! "When Mencius was discussing with the powerful people in various vassal states, he liked to give examples and metaphors to explain the truth to each other, and his words showed everyone's language charm and wonderful ideological confrontation.

The Death of Mencius

In 289 BC, a wise old man quietly closed his eyes in the palace of King Xuan of Qi. It is said that he was angry to death, and his death was related to Zhang Yi. "Old Master Meng, what's wrong with you. Shameless? ! "Zhang Yi stood in the main hall and accused Confucianism of thinking that everyone is a villain and a gentleman. There are thousands of Confucian disciples. How many of them are like the Mohist disciples and are real people? How many of them are not weak and useless? You Confucians openly regard hypocrisy as a virtue, blatantly seduce people to tell lies, and claim to be gentle and humble gentlemen. I think your Confucian school is really shameless." Zhang Yi laughed and cursed, and there was no one in the hall. No one said anything, but Mencius' heavy breathing could be heard. Mencius was depressed and had a lot of things to say but didn't know where to start. He heard Zhang Yi looking up to the sky and laughing. Mencius was so ashamed that he vomited blood and died in a panic.