Role of Emotion in Mencius
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Mencius, as a political philosopher during a volatile time in Chinese history, sought to restore tranquility to the Chinese countryside with his work. For Mencius, this tranquility was to come from strong moral foundations throughout the populous. Though Mencius began his activism amid a period of great distress in which morals were compromised as an order of business, he saw great hope for change in the inherent features of human nature. To Mencius, all humans possessed the potential to be morally decent. In split-second reactions to trauma, incidents that cast an unsullied light on human nature, human decisions were unfailingly decent. So building on this respect for innate human goodness Mencius pursued a social and political structure that would allow inherent human goodness to blossom in the Chinese kingdom. Mencius, like Confucius before him, pursued his reforms in the political and social structure of the day, the rulers and the ruled. However, Mencius' political philosophy required that the ruling class, the elite, change its role in relation to the masses. Mencius appealed to the ruling class, the ruler especially, to be moral examples for the entire populous. For Mencius said, "When the prince is benevolent, everyone else is benevolent...