Do I Love to Argue?

Reading it step by step

Today we start reading Mencius. His name was Meng Ke. He came from the small state of Zou and was born some 170 years after Confucius. He studied in the line of Confucius's grandson Zisi, but he never met the master himself, so he made Confucius a teacher he carried in his heart.

He lived in a noisy age. Some twenty states were swallowing each other, and kings greeted scholars with one question: “What's in it for my state?” The historian Sima Qian said he sighed and put the book down every time King Hui asked Mencius this. At that rate, one teacher jokes, he'd never finish; better to read on and see the answer. Mencius spent his life in conversations like that. No wonder his own student heard people say, “Your teacher really loves to argue.”

First: not “I love to argue” but “I have no choice.” Some people argue for the thrill of winning. Mencius says he is pushed into it. History swings between order and chaos, and he is standing in the chaos: wars without end, rulers who talk only of profit, lopsided ideas filling every ear. If nobody speaks, it gets worse.

Second: what he wants to set right is the human heart. He usually argued with the most powerful person in the room, but he spoke for the people with the least voice. Picture the terracotta army: rows of soldiers in identical armour, with no choice when the order comes. The Confucian eye sees a person with dignity inside each suit of armour. Mencius believed the heart leans toward good, and that when we are sincere, that leaning becomes real strength. Note the word “leans.” He does not say everyone is born finished and good. That is exactly why we need teaching, reminders, and someone willing to speak plainly.

Third: he argued well, and beautifully. King Xuan of Qi more than once confessed, “I have a weakness.” To admit an illness is to treat the listener as a doctor. What weakness? A love of women, of daring, of wealth: the three faults Confucius warned against across three stages of life, all in one man. Mencius doesn't laugh. On the spot he quotes the old Songs and Documents: the ancient kings loved women too, so they made sure every man and woman could marry; loved daring, and their anger was on the people's behalf; loved wealth, and filled the people's granaries and travel bags.