| Confucius's best-known follower, Mencius was from the state of Zou near Lu. He too had many students and traveled to many of the feudal states. His work, Mengzi (The Mencius) is also an anecdotal collection of chats with his disciples, a masterpiece of classical Chinese prose. He stressed benevolence (ren) in government, noting that the best rulers knew to treat the people well, for then the latter would support the ruler always and without compulsion. He articulated a “right of revolution” whereby regicide in the case of an evil sovereign was not, properly speaking, regicide, because a bad ruler forfeited his right to govern. He emphasized that everyone innately possessed the roots of goodness and must try to recapture them from the perverting forces of greed. Rulers had a responsibility to establish the basis for the people to cultivate goodness and proper behavior. | 1 |
