Four Virtues | August 10, 2004

In the beginning of a text of Mencius (also known as Meng Tzu, the most important Confucian philosopher after Confucius), Mencius comes to visit the ruler of Liang who asks him what value he would be able to provide to the state. Mencius starts criticizing the utilitarian thinking of the Ruler of Liang. He instead tells the Ruler of Liang to think of humaneness and lawfulness (Jen and I). These two terms never appeared in this combination in the writings of Confucius but later became known as slogans of Confucianism. The positive anthropology of Confucianism goes back to Mencius and these two terms. He believed that men were generally good and since birth possess four characteristics: pity (compassion), sense of shame, disgust (of wrong deeds), modesty and reservation or discretion as well as the ability to discern between right and wrong. These characteristics are the four beginnings that lead to the four virtues, that are thereby also part of human nature: Humaneness or Jen (compassion), Lawfulness I (Sense of shame and disgust of wrongdoings), Sense of morality Li (modesty and reservation or discretion) and Inteligence (or brightness) Chih (the ability to discern between right and wrong).