History 1601E Lecture Notes - Hundred Schools Of Thought, Taoism, Tao Te Ching

• School: Western University
• Department: History
• Course: History 1601E
• Professor: Carl Young

Document Summary

Confucius" disciples : confucius died with only a small following, sayings compiled in the analects. The master said : number of confucians grew in the century after confucius" death, major disciples were mencius and xunzi (100-150 years after his death) Mencius : went beyond confucius in focusing on human nature. Used confucius" basic ideas but addressed other issues as well: for him, human nature is naturally good but clouded by ignorance, through education and self-cultivation to build virtue, knowledge, wisdom, and you"ll be good. The mandate of heaven : mencius believed that rulers acquired their position through heaven"s mandate. This is a mix of a belief of confucius, and from the zhao dynasty: ruler should be motivated to increase the welfare of the people and act benevolently. If the ruler did not act this way, this was a sign that he had lost heaven"s mandate and people were justified to rise up against him.