Famous sayings related to Mencius' theory of nourishing qi

"Mencius Gao Zi Shang": "Water and faith do not matter, nor are they neck and neck? The goodness of human nature is even better than water. There is nothing wrong with people, and there is nothing wrong with water. Today, my husband's water, beating and jumping, can make it too long; If you are excited, you can make it in the mountains. Is this the nature of water? Its potential is natural. People can be bad and their nature is still good. " Mencius believed that human nature is good, just like water flowing downwards, which is in our nature. However, if you add potential, it will inevitably change. Both "noble spirit" and "human nature is good" exist in essence, and "noble spirit" is a manifestation of the theory of good nature. Both of them are very important in personality cultivation. If you don't cultivate noble spirit, you will change the essence of people's hearts. Human nature is a relatively stable instinct. If we don't maintain it, it will be distorted. The "noble spirit" is related to "matching righteousness and Tao", but it is not limited to the moral level, but "stuck between heaven and earth" Just as Mr. Feng Youlan said, "It is related to any universe, so it is a kind of super-moral value", that is, "Haoran Qi" is a harmonious beauty that is related to the universe and integrated with heaven and earth. In addition, it is also a process of "gathering", which is not accidental. The accumulation process of "nourishment" is an emotional force produced by natural forces in the deep heart, which fills the space between heaven and earth after running in the body. It is the beauty achieved by "enrichment" and the beauty sublimated by the inner individual's emotional will. The reason why "noble spirit" can be "cultivated" is because it has the foundation of innate goodness. Mencius believes that human nature has four ends: sadness, shame, respect and right and wrong, that is, benevolence, righteousness, courtesy and wisdom, which is also the source of noble spirit. Therefore, the process of "nourishing qi" is to expand people's judgment of goodness and improve people's nature. It is the expansion of internal strength after filling people's personality, so that people have a willingness to become virtuous, maintain people's subjective consciousness and enhance the beauty of personality. Although "human nature is good", why are ugly phenomena often rampant in the world? In Mencius' view, this is caused by the alienation and loss of human nature, and it is the influence of acquired environment on human nature, which makes people easy to be deceived or tempted in the face of bad living environment and easy to lose their kind nature and authenticity. Therefore, Mencius emphasized the independence of personality, had the inner spirit of seeking truth and being kind, and showed the conscious spirit of "being kind to the world", and advocated that everyone should seek their own way of life independently from heaven and earth. Source: the first half of Xijiang literature and art