Mencius' Mysteries Revealed

Bill Brown 。。。 Xiamen University
"...according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed...." Romans 16:25

"From the birth of humanity until now, there has been no one more complete than Confucius." Mencius, 372-289 B.C. [自生民以来，未有盛于孔子也]

Cows & Feathers
Mencius was the most brilliant of Confucian scholars, perhaps even surpassing Confucius himself. He was also brave, and not afraid to confront kings and princes with their own hypocrisy. In King Hui of Liang Part 1, when Mencius heard the king had pity on a bull being led to the sacrifice, and switched with a sheep, he told the king, "Many say you did this because the sheep was cheaper, but I think you did it out of compassion for the bull." The delighted king replied, "How right you are! People don't understand me."

Mencius then said, "You had pity on the bull, which you saw, but not on the sheep, which you did not see." The king was silent, because he well knew Mencius logic could take him down some slippery slopes he'd rather not traverse. Mencius continued, "Would you believe someone who claimed they could lift 3,000 cattle but not one feather? Or had eyes sharp enough to see the point of an autumn hair but could not see a wagon-load of wood?"

"Of course not!" the king replied.

Mencius then said, "The king has compassion on a cow but not on his people. The feather is not lifted because the strength is not used; the wagon is not seen because the eyesight is not used; the people not loved and protected is because kindness is not used."

I marvel that Mencius was not beheaded! In 213 B.C., only 76 years after Mencius' death, Emperor Qin, who first unified China, built the Great Wall, and created the Terra Cotta Warriors tomb, did burn books, and philosophers with them, to avoid such criticism.

Mencius was brilliant, and brave, and yet this great man said that, from the beginning of history until his age, no man was more complete than Confucius. Mencius claimed this even though he knew that Confucius himself regretted that he preached the highest ideals while failing to attain the simplest standards. Confucius said a scholar who worried about comfort, food and clothes was not worth talking to, and yet Confucius himself was fastidious about his food, clothing and ceremony.

Yet Confucius admitted his faults and failures because he was wise enough to know that all men fall short, and no man has an answer. Confucius and Mencius both spoke of the Way of Heaven, but they both felt no man could well understand life, much less the mysteries of Heaven.

The more I read Chinese classics, the more I admire these ancients' struggle to follow the Way of Heaven by perfecting themselves, but they admitted that there was no way for finite man to grasp the Infinite. And that is why our Father sent a man to live amongst us--not to philosophize about life, or develop doctrines, but to live the Infinite life within a finite form, and to teach us to do the same.

Today, we face the same struggles as the ancients, and we are as powerless as Confucius and Mencius to change ourselves. Change must come not from external philosophies and religions but from an internal relationship with One who has been through it before us, and will lead us.

Many say, "Christ is a crutch," and many others retort, "Cripples need crutches." But Jesus is not a crutch propping us up from without, but a power lifting us from within, changing people in ways that still challenge the understanding of psychologists, doctors, scientists, and even the religious people (for Christ preached not religion but relationship with the Father).

The infinite remained a mystery to both Confucius and Mencius, but it has been revealed to us. What will we do with it?
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