Mencius · Philosophy
Mencius’s most radical doctrine: that the people, not the ruler, are the most precious element of a state; that the Mandate of Heaven is granted through the people’s acceptance; and that a tyrant who forfeits it may be overthrown, since killing such a man is executing ‘a mere fellow,’ not murdering a king.
You learned that Mencius ranked the people as the most precious element of the state and the ruler as the lightest, tied the Mandate of Heaven to the people’s acceptance (‘Heaven sees as my people see’), and justified overthrowing a tyrant on the ground that a ruler who outrages benevolence and right…
Leads to Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
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