Mencius teaches that human nature is good
c. 320 BCEMajor
Mencius, the leading Confucian after Confucius, argues that people are born with the seeds of goodness. The Mengzi later becomes one of the Four Books at the core of Confucian education.
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Longest chain: The Big Bang → First stars ignite → Supernovae seed heavy elements → The Sun forms → Earth forms → First oceans → First life → Photosynthesis evolves → Great Oxidation Event → Complex cells (eukaryotes) → Multicellular life → First animals → Cambrian Explosion → First vertebrates → Jawed fish → Fish walk onto land → The amniotic egg → The Great Dying → Dinosaurs appear → Asteroid ends the dinosaurs → Early primates → Apes split from monkeys → Human line splits from chimpanzees → Walking upright → First stone tools → Genus Homo appears → Homo erectus → Control of fire → First fired clay figures → First pottery → Copper smelting → Bronze Age begins → Shang dynasty → Chinese writing on oracle bones → Confucius → Mencius teaches that human nature is good
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Book Mencius (trans. D. C. Lau)
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