Virtue Politics

An advocate of Confucian morality, Mencius exhorted ruling through virtue during the Warring States, when sundry ideas of effectual governance prospered. Like Confucius had done two centuries before him, Mencius wandered from state to state, lobbying sovereigns. Mencian virtue politics has been pivotal to political thinking in China, though most appealing, it may be argued, to scholars. From Mencius, Mingyuan Hu selects and translates four dialogues - 'Goodness and Honour Suffice', 'How May the World Be in Peace', 'Protect the People', and 'Following Nature, People Are Able to Do Good' - exemplary of this thinking.