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MenciusMencius
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Book VIIChapter Summaries & Analyses
Book VII, Part A Summary
The final book of Mencius starts with a discussion of fate and death. The opening section says that if a man realizes his true moral character he will know his nature, and by so doing he will also come to know “heaven” or fate. As such, “Whether he is going to die young or to live to a ripe old age makes no difference to his steadfastness of purpose” (145). Mencius argues that if we have properly developed our character, we should not be troubled by death or whether it comes early. The next two sections flesh out more precisely what this means. Everything happens, says Mencius, according to destiny. Still, we can take an active role in understanding and responding to this destiny (section 2). If we follow the way, we will always die as is befitting of our destiny. In the next section (section 3), Mencius talks about how we can be “open” to destiny while still seeking it.
This subject leads onto a discussion, in later sections, about how we discover ourselves and of asceticism. While, Mencius says, “The multitude can never be said to understand what they practice” and are unaware of themselves (146), a “gentleman” is constantly looking for himself and takes the greatest joy in self-examination. Such a man should also take pleasure in himself and his following of the way. He should not be concerned with external rewards or success (sections 9 and 21). One man who did this was the true king, Shun, who spent time alone in the mountains (section 16).
At the same time, Mencius is critical of the asceticism of his day and cautions against it. He singles out a man called Ch’en Chung specifically. Ch’en is said to have associated rightness with the refusal of food. Mencius believes this puts far too much emphasis on small matters, ignoring issues of greater significance. It involves neglecting one’s duties to one’s parents and to one’s prince (section 34). Instead, as in his criticisms of Yang Tzu’s egoism and Mo Tzu’s universal love suggest, the best way is that which avoids extremes (section 26). In relation to asceticism, this means that one should tend to oneself and quiet the distractions of the outside world. However, it is misguided to shut out the world altogether or to view the denial of earthly pleasures as an end in itself.
Book VII, Part B Summary Summary
Part B continues some of the discussion about asceticism and destiny from Part A, but it also contains significant passages about the role of the sage and about Confucius. In one section Mencius talks about a man who died because he had not adopted the way of the gentleman (section 29). He thereby suggests that destiny sometimes “punishes” certain unvirtuous people, although this comment is in tension with other sections in which fate, or the heavens, is depicted as being indifferent to whom it kills. Mencius says in a later section, “A gentleman merely follows the norms and awaits his destiny” (165). This idea of awaiting implies that one cannot ultimately control or alter destiny, but one can be better prepared for it. On the topic of asceticism, Mencius claims in section 34 that one ought not to indulge in excessive desires. In fact, it is preferable to limit the number of one’s desires.
In section 15, Mencius discusses the role of the sage in inspiring future generations. He suggests that to know a true sage, like Po Yi or Liu Hsia, personally would be incredibly inspiring but that they can still inspire “a hundred generations” (160). This comment shows the reverence in which the sage is held by Mencius. Such an impression is reinforced when he goes on to talk about how if the sage transcends understanding he becomes “divine” (section 25).
The reverence for the sage also explains why Confucius, according to Mencius, was scathing about the figure of the “village worthy” (section 37). Such a man possesses all the outward appearances of honesty, integrity, and obedience to the ancestors. In reality, though, he is just a self-righteous conformist, going along with all the fashions of his day without questioning anything. For this reason, he is a danger to virtue because people mistake his behavior and character for that of true virtue. In the final section of this book, and of the text, Mencius details the time that has elapsed between different rulers and the present. From King Shun, one of the exemplary kings, to King Wen it was 500 years. Another 500 years passed between Wen and Confucius. Finally, between Confucius and the time in which Mencius is talking, more one hundred years have passed (section 38). Mencius concludes by noting that while the present is relatively close in time and place to “the sage,” there is still a potentially great distance between themselves and such a man as Confucius.
Book VII Analysis
The shadow and problem of death is foregrounded in book VII of Mencius. While mourning, war, and even starvation have featured as recurring themes throughout the text, in this book death and fate are dealt with explicitly for the first time. In the very final section, the mortality of the old kings and Confucius, both so present in Mencius, is brought home when they are revealed to have been dead respectively for over a millennium and a century. This discussion raises the question of how Mencius’s sage or gentleman deals with not just untimely death in the case of themselves or others but with the fact of death itself and with the blows of fate—of sickness, poverty, and suffering—that often come with it.
This seems a particular problem for the idea of the way and the philosophical picture that Mencius looks to present with it. The meaning and purpose of the individual within this system is given by their connection to the whole. We exist in harmony with it, in fulfilling our role and our duties in virtue. Conversely, the whole returns to us a harmony within ourselves and with the world. If death can strike us down at any moment, this contract seems broken or at best flawed. If even in the most ordered and benevolent of societies chaos and disorder can arbitrarily re-assert themselves, then we may feel that the ideal of harmony is a chimera.
Book VII of Mencius explores a number of potential responses to this problem. It does not entertain religious solutions. The term “heaven” is used by Mencius, but there is no indication that this concept has anything to do with an afterlife. Even in a minimal or metaphorical sense, there are no references to something resembling a Christian notion of heaven, nor is re-incarnation ever mentioned. Thus, Mencius is left with various terrestrial options. To start with, he mentions the influence a sage may have on future generations. He also discusses the role a teacher can have when those who come into contact with him try to emulate his example (155). Like Confucius, the sage and the teacher might mitigate the absolute dead end of death through the influence and legacy that live on through them. Likewise, in a humbler setting, leading an exemplary life could still help others find the way, even after one has departed from the world.
Mencius also suggests that we cope by adopting a certain attitude towards fate and life. As he says in Part A, “He who dies after having done his best in following the Way dies according to his proper Destiny” (145). This claim can be understood to have two possible elements and meanings. On the one hand, it can be viewed in terms of advocating a certain kind of stoicism: By finding joy in oneself, and one’s inner life, regardless of the external world, one is able to deal with external misfortune when or if it comes. This is because the external world cannot take from us what we truly value.
The other aspect and meaning of Mencius’s admonition to die according to our destiny might be related to the idea of affirming fate. If we truly live according to the way, then we also seek harmony with, and become reconciled to, the world, even suffering and death. Such a notion has parallels with Nietzsche’s notion of Amor fati (love of fate). This is the idea, found in The Gay Science (1882), that we come to understand, and affirm, existence even its most dark and questionable aspects. It also leads into the concept of the “eternal return” and the notion that we affirm the endless recurrence of struggle and becoming. While, on one level, the position of Mencius is diametrically opposed to this, such a contrast is illuminating here. Mencius seeks to create and affirm harmony between the parts of the world, not the discord between them. If his goal really is the harmony of the individual with the whole, however, then not only an acceptance but a love of its hardest challenges may be necessary.
