Mencius (371-289 BC) was a Chinese philosopher and one of the most important early Confucian thinkers. His philosophy is characterized by its idealism and the assertion that man's nature is basically good.

Confucius, the great Chinese teacher and thinker, died in 479 B.C., and on the eastern seaboard of China his disciples established schools which carried on the teachings of the master. By the end of the 4th century a number of important Confucian philosophers emerged, and the most brilliant of these philosophers was Mencius. Mencius elaborated on and refined many of the ideas of Confucius, and his interpretations became as influential in the Chinese tradition as the ideas of the master himself.

Mencius, which is the Latinized form of Meng-tzu (Master Meng), was born in Tsou, a small state south of Lu, the home state of Confucius. Lu lay in what is now the southern part of...