"The most important development of the Confucian School was in the teachings of Mencius (372β289 B.C.). After the death of Confucius, the teachings were divided into two schools, one of Hsuntse and one of Mencius, the former believing in the wickedness of human nature and the necessity of restraint, and the latter believing in the sheer expansiveness of the good heart of man. Mencius said, "The great man is one who has not lost the heart of a child." He started out from the assumption that man has the innate capacity for good and loves what is good, that it is through corruption that man deteriorates, and that therefore the essence of self-cultivation, of preserving one's moral character, consists merely in "finding the lost heart of the child." This has become the orthodox school. Mencius has been given a place next only to Confucius, and it is common to speak of Confucian doctrines as "the teachings of Kung-Meng," meaning Confucius (Kung) and Mencius (Meng)."
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Sources
Lin Yutang, From Pagan to Christian (1959), Ch. 3: "The Mansion of Confucius", IV. 'Mencius: Finding the Lost Heart', pp. 86β87
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mencius
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Mencius
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