Mencius and coming to know Heaven

Confucian sage, mystic, and prophet of ancient China

When it comes to ancient philosophers with whom I feel an unusually warm connection, two stand out. Neither is Western or Greek, as it happens. Both are, in fact, Chinese and were contemporaries of one another. One of these “friends” of mine is Zhuangzi (or, Chuang Tzu; d. early 4^th/late 3^rd century B.C.), who stands among the three great seminal thinkers – along with Laozi and Liezi – of “philosophical” Taoism. I dare say I will have something to say about him in another post one of these days. But here I want to look briefly at the other great ancient Chinese philosopher who has exercised a benign influence on me ever since I first encountered him nearly half a century ago. I refer to Mencius (372 – 289 B.C.; the name “Mencius” is a Latinizing of Mengzi), a principal explicator of orthodox Confucianism. According to tradition, Mencius was a disciple of Zisi, the grandson of Confucius (c. 551 – c. 479 B.C.) – a lineage of discipleship that reminds me of the Christian tradition that Irenaeus of Lyons had learned the faith from Polycarp of Smyrna, who in turn had been a disciple of John the Apostle, over a similar lapse of time. Mencius had been a government official and scholar in the State of Qi during the “Warring States” period in China (403 – 221 B.C.), but disheartened by his failure to inaugurate changes while in office, he retired from public service to live the life of a roving sage. One can look up his biographical details elsewhere, but here I wish to draw attention to what I love best in Mencius’ book. [1] As most readers know by now, my definition of “mysticism” is an intuition of transcendent reality that leads one into practical faith and discipline – hence, pragmatic. Despite Confucianism’s reputation for not being “mystical” in character (as, for instance, Taoism is), Mencius has a mystical bent as well as a prophetic one. Regarding the “prophetic” aspect of the man, the book of Mencius is a series of dialogues with rulers, with the sage — like a Hebrew prophet — arguing for justice in various ways (for example, he declares that a ruler has the responsibility to see that his people are free from poverty and that socialization and education should be for the cultivation of general goodness [2]). In one striking instance of boldness, he even asserts that the common people possess the right to overthrow a despot (1B:8). But it’s Mencius’ mystical bent that will be my focus in the remainder of this article.