Mencius

Mencius (c. 372-289 B.C.) was a famous thinker and educator during the middle Warring States period (475-221 B.C.) and a representative figure of the Confucian school of thought after Confucius. He is often mentioned together with Confucius as "Confucius and Mencius". He shared many similarities with Confucius in life experiences, as both of them toured around the states without being appointed to significant posts. His important ideas and activities were compiled into the Mencius, a testament to his strong personality, eloquence, and fearless refusal to be in thrall to royal power.

During the Warring States period, various schools of thought emerged and challenged Confucianism, and Mencius took it upon himself to defend and develop Confucius' ideas through debates with scholars from other schools. He expanded Confucius' concept of benevolence to include righteousness, propriety, and wisdom. He also proposed the theory of innate goodness, suggesting that everyone had the potential for benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom, thus laying the foundation for the Confucian theory of human nature. He developed Confucius' idea of "virtuous governance" – which called for responsiveness to the people's aspirations – into that of "benevolent governance" to be incorporated into a range of specific initiatives of an ideological, political, and economic nature. He was also the first to argue for the need to place the interests of the people before those of the ruler, emphasizing that the state had the obligation to protect the interests of the people. He suggested that harmonious and stable inter-state relations should be based on moral principles rather than on strength, and emphasized that the Confucian concept of benevolence operated on different levels when applied to different sections of society.

After the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), Mencius continued to rise in status, and was revered as the "Second Sage" (second only to Confucius).  The Mencius also exerted a far-reaching influence on the development of Chinese culture.

孟子

孟子（約前372—前289），戰(zhàn)國中期著名思想家、教育家，是繼孔子之后儒家學派的代表人物，與孔子并稱“孔孟”。孟子一生經(jīng)歷與孔子非常相似，游歷諸國都未得重用。孟子重要言行被編纂整理為《孟子》一書，他個性鮮明，言辭雄辯，不懼王權(quán)，有浩然之氣。

戰(zhàn)國時期百家蜂擁而起，儒家面臨著其他學派的挑戰(zhàn)。孟子以維護孔子思想為己任，在與其他學派的辯論中繼承并發(fā)展了孔子的思想：他將孔子的“仁”擴充為仁、義、禮、智四種品德，并提出性善論，認為每個人都天生具有仁義禮智的萌芽，為儒家的道德主張奠定人性論基礎(chǔ)；他將孔子的“為政以德”順應民心發(fā)展為包含思想、政治、經(jīng)濟一系列具體舉措的“仁政”，最早提出“民貴君輕”思想，強調(diào)國家要以維護人民的利益為根本目標；他提倡國家間和諧穩(wěn)定的關(guān)系應該以道德原則為基礎(chǔ)，反對以力量強弱為基礎(chǔ)； 他強調(diào)儒家所講的仁愛面對不同對象時，要有次序和程度的差別。

北宋以后，孟子的地位不斷上升，被尊崇為“亞圣”（僅次于“圣人”孔子），他的著作《孟子》對中國文化的發(fā)展產(chǎn)生了深遠影響。