Basic information of Confucius and Mencius family

In the middle of the 2nd century BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty realized that Confucius' theory was beneficial to the centralized and unified social structure, so he adopted Dong Zhongshu's suggestion of "ousting a hundred schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone". Since then, in the feudal society of more than two thousand years, China has always respected Confucius as a saint and Mencius as a saint. Up to the emperor, down to the common people, and the descendants of Confucius and Mencius, all consciously or unconsciously believe or think that Mencius' academic thoughts are in the same strain or completely consistent with Confucius. In short, it is the so-called home of Confucius and Mencius.

And Confucius and Mencius are of the same generation, and there is no difference.

Kong Fansen is the 74th generation of Confucius and Mencius, and Confucius is the 76th generation ... (Zhao, Xian, Qing, Fu, Xiang, Ling ...) The descendants of Confucius and Mencius are now named, and the official generation is in the Ming Dynasty. In the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang gave Kong eight generations of characters: Gong, Yan, Cheng, Hong, Wen, Zhen, Shang and Yin, so as to name them. Later, the Duke was sealed by the 56th generation Kong in the first year of Hongwu and the 57th generation Kong Ne in the 17th year of Hongwu. In this way, ten words were added next to "Xi" and "Yan", namely, Yan, Gong, Yan, Cheng, Hong, Wen, Zhen, Shang and Yin (in the late Qing Dynasty, in order to avoid the emperor's taboo, Hong was changed to macro and Yin to Yan). In tomorrow's New Year, these ten words are not enough. They were written by the feast duke Kong Yinzhi in the sixty-fifth generation. The following 20 words are: "Jade Biography in the Prosperous Age, showing the virtuous and celebrating the numerous auspicious occasions, making Dewei look down on you and admire Shao". In the eighth year of the Republic of China, Kong Lingyi, the Duke of Feast in the seventy-sixth century, set up another cross and asked the then Beiyang government for approval and publication. That is, the 86th generation to the105th generation. That is, "build a stable road, build a stable life, raise a stable life, be rich in literature and prosper the scenery, and last forever." So far, the youngest known generation is Qin. So many descendants of Confucius and Mencius can see the size of their generation from their names. This is not always used by the descendants of Confucius and Mencius, but in the ninth year of Qianlong in Qing Dynasty (1744), it was investigated and sorted out by the Ministry of Rites, and reported to the emperor as the descendants of Confucius and Mencius. Prior to this, the genealogy of Confucius was very complicated [3]. This method of selecting Chinese characters was greatly simplified than before, and was advocated by the emperor, which made other large families in China also follow this method. Since the Han Dynasty, the academic circles have almost unanimously listed Mencius as a Confucian and promoted him to the status of "sub-saint" after Confucius. During the Cultural Revolution, there was even a saying of "Confucius and Mencius".

In fact, judging from the basic content of his theory, Mencius and Confucius are by no means one, and it seems more in line with the actual situation to classify him as a Mencius school different from Confucianism.

Unlike Confucius's "self-denial", which basically advocated maintaining the weekly system politically, Monk put forward a set of economic and political thoughts belonging to the feudal system.

In economic thought, Confucius advocated adhering to the old system. Monk believes that the ideal economic system should be a small-scale peasant economy completely different from the weekly system, and everyone has "continuous production". He advocated the "permanent production" of five acres of houses and one hundred acres of land, which was completely different from the feudal small-scale peasant economy under slavery.

In political thought, There is a great difference between Monk and Confucius' "Masters should keep order". ................................................................................................................................................'s proposition of Mencius has bold enlightenment and innovative significance for the era when monarchy is above everything else.

Mencius believes that kings can't govern people, and if they die in the territory, they should be abandoned. He once asked Qi Xuanwang face to face: "What should I do if a country is not well governed?" Qi Xuanwang looked around, afraid to answer directly.

Mencius also believed that if a scholar-bureaucrat failed in his duty, he should take the initiative to resign. All these are against slavery. It is also different from Confucius' attitude of "people can let them know, but they can't know" to the people, and "color as it is, foot as it is, bow as it is, breath as infinite" to the monarch.

Therefore, academically speaking, Mencius should not be classified as a Confucian school, but should become an independent Mencius school.