Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T08:38:23.026Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Political implications of compassion in Mencius

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Sarinya Arunkhajornsak
Sarinya Arunkhajornsak*
Affiliation:
Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
*
Sarinya Arunkhajornsak, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand. Email: Sarinya.A@chula.ac.th
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper examines Mencius’ view on compassion in the political realm by proposing that Mencius defends compassionate governance by reconciling the two extremes of Yangist self-love and Mohist universal love. This paper proposes a reading of two famous stories, namely, the story of a young child on the verge of falling into a well, and the story of King Xuan of Qi sparing an ox as paradigmatic cases for understanding Mencius’ account of compassion in the political realm. This paper argues that Mencius succeeds in his defense of governance with compassion against the other two extremes of self-love and altruism. To provide an argument for compatibility with egoism or self-love, this paper offers an analysis of Mencius’ idea of the ruler sharing pleasure with his people instead of denying pleasure for himself. In this sense, a good ruler does not need to sacrifice his self-interest. To counter the demand of universal love of the Mohists, Mencius develops a position that the Confucian ideal ruler, while not sacrificing his self-interests, those interests need to be guided and directed by a proper process of moral cultivation of his compassionate heart so that he can readily share his pleasures with all the peoples in his kingdom. These readings indicate Mencius’ expanded argument for political implications of compassion in the moral universe of the Confucian school.

Keywords

Menciuscompassiongovernance with benevolenceself-loveimpartial lovesharing of pleasure
Type
Articles
Information
Diogenes , Volume 63 , Issue 1-2: Emotions and Ethical Life: Perspectives from Asia , February 2016 , pp. 35 - 47
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

An, O-S (1998) Compassion and Benevolence: A Comparative Study of Early Buddhist and Classical Confucian Ethics. New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Bai, T (2014) Early Confucian political philosophy and its contemporary relevance. In: Shen, V (ed.), Dao Companion to Classical Confucian Philosophy. New York: Springer, 335-361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bein, S (2013) Compassion and Moral Guidance. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blum, L (1994) Moral Perception and Particularity. New York: cup.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chan, SY (2004) Filial piety, commiseration, and the virtue of ren. In: Chan, AKL, Tan, S-H (eds) Filial Piety in Chinese Thought and History. New York: Routledge Curzon, 176–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chan, WC (2014) Philosophical thought of Mencius. In: Shen, V (éd.), Dao Companion to Classical Confucian Philosophy. New York: Springer, 153–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, S (2010) On pleasure: a reflection on happiness from the Confucian and Daoist perspectives. Frontiers of Philosophy in China 5(2): 179–195.Google Scholar
Confucius (1979) The Analects, translated with an introd. by Lau, DC. New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Darwall, S (1998) Empathy, sympathy, care. Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition 89(2–3): 261–282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graham, AC (1990) The background of the Mencian theory of human nature. In Graham, AC (ed.), Studies in Chinese Philosophy and Philosophical Literature. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 7–66.Google Scholar
Kim, M-S (2010) What ceyin zhi xin (compassion/familial affection) Really Is. Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 9(4): 407–425.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, J (2010) Mencius’ refutation of Yang Zhu and Mozi and the theoretical implication of Confucian benevolence and love. Frontiers of Philosophy in China 5(2): 155–178.Google Scholar
Mencius (1970) Mencius, translated with an introd. by Lau, DC. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, M (1996) Compassion: the basic social emotion. Social Philosophy and Policy 13(1): 27–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nussbaum, M (2014) Compassion and terror. In: Ure, M, Frost, M (eds) The Politics of Compassion. New York: Routledge, 189–207.Google Scholar
Nylan, M, Huang, H (2008) Mencius on pleasure. In: Chandler et, M, Littlejohn, R (eds) Polishing the Chinese Mirror: Essays in Honor of Henry Rosemont, Jr. New York: Global Scholarly Publication, 244–269.Google Scholar
Shun, K-L (1997) Mencius and Early Chinese Thought. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snow, NE (1991) Compassion. American Philosophical Quarterly 28(3): 195–205.Google Scholar
Van Norden, BW (2007) Virtue Ethics and Consequentialism in Early Chinese Philosophy. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yang, X (2006) When political philosophy meets moral psychology: expressivism in the Mencius. Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy, 5(2): 257–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar