Mèngzǐ (zhèngwén) 孟子(正文)
Mencius — base text
attributed to 孟軻 (Mèng Kē, zì Zǐyú 子輿, ca. 372–289 BCE)
About the work
The bare canonical text of the Mèngzǐ 孟子, extracted (without commentary) from the standard Mèngzǐ zhùshū 孟子注疏 in the Qing imperial reprint commissioned by Ruǎn Yuán 阮元: the 1816 (Jiāqìng 21) Nánchāngfǔxué 江西南昌府學 cutting of the Sòng-edition Shísānjīng zhùshū 十三經注疏. Seven piān — Liáng Huì wáng 梁惠王, Gōngsūn Chǒu 公孫丑, Téng Wén gōng 滕文公, Lí Lóu 離婁, Wàn Zhāng 萬章, Gàozǐ 告子, Jìnxīn 盡心 — each subdivided into shàng 上 and xià 下, totalling 14 juàn in the conventional zhùshū arrangement.
Abstract
The Mèngzǐ records the teachings of Mèng Kē 孟軻 — itinerant counsellor of the late Warring States period and the most influential Confucian thinker after the Master himself. Per the Shǐjì 史記 Mèng Xún liè zhuàn 孟荀列傳, Mencius “withdrew with Wàn Zhāng 萬章 and his other disciples, ordered the Shī 詩 and Shū 書 traditions, set forth the doctrine of Confucius, and made the Mèngzǐ in seven piān” (tuì ér yǔ Wàn Zhāng zhī tú xù Shī Shū, shù Zhòngní zhī yì, zuò Mèngzǐ qī piān 退而與萬章之徒序詩書述仲尼之意作孟子七篇). Whether the seven piān in their received form are genuinely Mencius’s own composition or, more plausibly, a school-anthology assembled by his immediate disciples (especially Wàn Zhāng and Gōngsūn Chǒu) in the years following his death, has been debated since the Hàn; the work in any case took something like its present shape by the early Hàn. An “outer chapters” Mèngzǐ wàishū 孟子外書 (4 piān) is mentioned in the Hànshū yìwénzhì 漢書·藝文志, but is no longer extant; modern editions printed under that title are Míng-period fabrications.
The book’s elevation from zǐ 子 to jīng 經 was a Sòng achievement. It was ranked among the Classics in 1071 (Wáng Ānshí 王安石’s curriculum reforms), included in the imperial sacrificial cult to Confucius from 1083, and finally fixed at the centre of the Confucian canon by Zhū Xī 朱熹 (1130–1200), who selected it together with the Lúnyǔ 論語, Dàxué 大學 and Zhōngyōng 中庸 to form the Sì shū 四書 (Four Books). From 1313 (Yányòu reform) until the abolition of the examination system in 1905 it was, with its three companions, a foundational primer for every Chinese — and most Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese — examination candidate. See further Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §28.4.4.
The Kanripo digital base of this entry is the punctuated zhèngwén of the Mèngzǐ zhùshū in the Ruǎn Yuán reprint, a careful collation of the Northern Sòng Bāxíng 八行 and other early printed witnesses. The 1816 Nánchāngfǔxué edition with Ruǎn Yuán’s jiàokān jì 校勘記 has remained the de-facto standard Shísānjīng zhùshū text into the 20th–21st centuries.
Translations and research
Critical English translation: D. C. Lau, Mencius (Penguin, 1970; rev. ed. Penguin, 2003). Other notable English translations: James Legge, The Chinese Classics II (Hong Kong / Oxford, 1861, repr. 1895); Bryan W. Van Norden, Mengzi: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries (Hackett, 2008); Irene Bloom, Mencius (Columbia, 2009). Modern Chinese punctuated edition: Yáng Bójùn 楊伯峻, Mèngzǐ yìzhù 孟子譯注 (Zhōnghuá, 1960; many reprints). On the textual history and authorship debate: Bruce Brooks and Taeko Brooks, The Original Analects (Columbia, 1998), with their working hypothesis on the layered composition of the Mèngzǐ; Jiāo Xún 焦循, Mèngzǐ zhèngyì 孟子正義 (1810s; Zhōnghuá repr.) — still the most thorough Qing-period commentary. Comparative translations of the Mencius are surveyed by D. S. Nivison, The Ways of Confucianism (Open Court, 1996), ch. on translation.
Other points of interest
KR1h0001 supplies the clean canonical text without Zhào Qí’s 趙岐 commentary or the (pseudo-)Sūn Shì zhèngyì 正義 — for those, see the parallel entries KR1h0002 (SBCK Hàn-commentary edition) and KR1h0003 (WYG Sòng zhùshū edition). The internal section reference scheme uses the 1A.01.02-style notation that has become the de-facto international standard, anchored to D. C. Lau’s translation.
Links
- Mèngzǐ on Chinese Text Project
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual (CHIA, 2022 ed.) §28.4.4 (the Four Books).