Ancient · c. 372–289 BC
Who influenced Mencius?
Influences
Argued human nature is good and that a ruler who loses the people loses the mandate.
Mencius was influenced by Confucius. That is 1 line of the 448 documented lines of influence between the 279 thinkers on this map.
Read on Wikipedia Portrait: anonymous, Public domain See the whole map
Who was Mencius?
Mencius, born Meng Ke, belonged to the fourth generation of Confucius's disciples and is traditionally honoured as the Second Sage. Living in the Warring States period, he is said to have spent much of his life travelling between states to advise their rulers, and his conversations with them make up the Mencius, later a Confucian classic.
He held that human nature is good. Under humane and righteous government, he argued, people care for their families, learn the proper rites and become better citizens, and the state flourishes. His younger contemporary Xunzi took the opposite view, that human nature is evil.
Summarized from the lead of the Wikipedia article.
Who influenced Mencius?
1 direct influence on this map, earliest first.
- Confucius 551–479 BC
Contemporaries of Mencius
Thinkers on this map born within 25 years of Mencius, with no direct line between them.
- Theophrastus c. 371–287 BC
- Zhuangzi c. 369–286 BC
- Crates of Thebes c. 365–285 BC
- Aristotle 384–322 BC
- Pyrrho c. 360–270 BC
- Hipparchia c. 350–280 BC
Mencius by the numbers
- Direct influences
- 1
- Direct followers
- 0
- Thinkers upstream
- 1
- Thinkers downstream
- 0
- Wikipedia languages
- 76 — #26 of 54 among ancient philosophers
- Card rarity
- Epic
Schools and lineages
- Non-Western: Confucius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Mencius, Xunzi, Nagarjuna, Adi Shankara, Ramanuja, Dōgen, Kitarō Nishida, Muhammad Iqbal
Questions about Mencius
- Who influenced Mencius?
- Confucius.
- Who did Mencius influence?
- No later thinker on this map is recorded as drawing directly on Mencius.
- When did Mencius live?
- c. 372–289 BC. The map files Mencius under the ancient world.
- How rare is the Mencius card?
- Wikipedia carries an article on Mencius in 76 languages, which makes it an Epic card. Legendary starts at 100 languages, Epic at 50 and Rare at 25.
More ancient philosophers
- Confucius 551–479 BC
- Aristotle 384–322 BC
- Plato c. 428–348 BC
- Socrates c. 470–399 BC
- Pythagoras c. 570–495 BC
- Laozi c. 6th c. BC
- Cicero 106–43 BC
- Thales of Miletus c. 624–546 BC