Hsun Tzu and Mencius Conflicting Perspectives of Society

HSUN TZU AND MENCIUS: Their Conflicting Perspectives of Society The Warring States period in China (453-221 BCE) presented a time of great confusion and chaos among the people of China. However, it was also a great period for the philosophy of Confucianism, with the teachings of Mencius and Hsun Tzu to lead the way for their lost followers. According to Hsun Tzu and Mencius, human beings give birth to their children with a sense of an inherent reaction to life. Without proper teaching, children would be uncivilized, and ineffective in contributing anything towards society. Young age is important, for it is at this time that their perspectives drastically split. Mencius believed that human beings were born with a rationality of good†¦show more content†¦This governance style would entail a stronger sense of fraternity and stronger bonds between the classes. This would be reinforced by an economic system that is progressive in centralized plots of diversified farms, where a mutual central square is cultivated by multiple families and encompassed their payment for taxation. This would entail families working together towards a mutual goal of bettering the entire community and the state through their taxation. These familiar bonds of filial piety would continue to stabilize their economic status, and create a new social infrastructure that would encompass a similar moral code. According to Mencius, hungry people cannot be moral people, and this economic system would have been effective in unifying the people if people heeded his warnings about the destabilizing morality and political structures. Mencius, though, had numerous flaws in his philosophy, because his arguments were based on contradictions and vacuity. The political system based on the lessening of the repercussions of laws and lessening taxes by a benevolent rule lead by virtue was the pivotal aspect of his argument that a good natured ruler would be rewarded with obedient subjects. The strict enforcement of armies to serve in battle, as in the methodo logy of Hsun Tzu, would serve as a catalyst for action, as in Menciuss ideology the inherent selfishness of people would overtake their desire to fight. The economic system conceptualized by