Mencius and Xun Zi

In my carried out research, two ideologists' perspectives have been compared and their view on human nature. The two ideologists, Mencius and Xun Zi, who were both Chinese philosophers, held different perspectives about human nature.

Mencius, ( Meng Ke), was a Chinese philosopher and a Confucianism interpreter, believed that lack of positive influence from one's society caused moral decay. He also believed that every individual has some goodness in him. This therefore means that bad environments nurture a negative personality. Mencius also believed that education awakens the sleeping abilities in human brains. He also held strong views about destiny and that no man should rebel destiny.

About his view on governance, Mencius insists that there should be common citizens in any given state because the keep check on their leaders' way of administration, and he also insisted that they era justified to force a leader out of office if he is not delivering according to their expectations. This should however be done in the most peaceful way possible. Mencius also maintains that a ruler must justify his position by acting according to his people's wishes, and even though he holds the top office, he is still a subordinate to his people.

Xun Zi on the other hand was a confusion philosopher, who contrary to Mencius's view, maintained that a person's wayward behavior need to be gotten rid of or maintained at a certain level through education and ritual and that ethical values were made to rectify mankind.

Through the Ox Mountain allegory, one can tell that Mencius believes that good deeds and principles get shed from people as they get to interact more with the environment they live in, just as it happened to the ox mountain as trees were cut from it.  Xunzi's criticism on Mencius' was therefore not as strong as compared to Mencius' way of thinking. Mencius seems to promote equity, humanity and democracy as compared to Xinzu, whose school of thought mainly focuses on bureaucracy. Mencius' ideas therefore appear more acceptable and more so applicable.