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A common link between Mencius and Chuang Tzu is the 
belief that religious life is an attempt by man to return in some way
to his original nature. These men agree that man's ordinary life falls 
short of the perfect harmony with existence that he once possesed,
either at birth or historically. But the two sages differ
greatly in their conceptions of this original nature, and
consequently the religious practices they outline in their writings 
are disparite. Mencius states that the original state of man,
and hence his religious goal, is to act in accord with nature
through his relationship with other men. Mencius' proposals
for religious life are accordingly fairly explicit and shaped by social needs.
Chuang Tzu, on the other hand, sees the goal as an individual harmony with nature.
The practices he ``proposes'' are for this reason rather unclearly
defined and more dependent upon personal choice. 
 
Mencius asserts that at birth, man is inherently good. As he
matures, however, his ``senses of sight and hearing are used without 
thought and are thereby obscured by material things,$\ldots$ [which] act
on the material senses and lead them astray.''\raise .1truein 
\hbox{\:a (6A:15, p. 59)} (All quotes, from both Mencius and from Chuang Tzu,
are taken from Wing-Tsit Chan's \:c A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy\:b,
Princeton University Press, 1973). Controlled by his senses (which are not
\:c bad, \:b but simply unaware of moral thought),
man cannot nourish and preserve the goodness
of his mind. It is religion's job to find this ``lost mind'' and restore its
authority. But what is the lost mind? Mencius says that
``humanty is man's mind, and righteousness is man's path.''\raise .1truein
\hbox{\:a (6A:11, p. 58)}
Humanity is, in fact, the true emphasis of Mencius' 
teaching, and righteousness to humanity is man's original nature.
 
The specific practices of religion must nourish this humanitarian 
righteousness, and the way to do this is to establish proper relationships
between people. Mencius doesn't just leave instructions to ``be good
to each other,'' however. There are five types of relationships, each
having particular responsibilities:

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{between father and son, there should be affection; between
ruler and minister, there should be righteousness; between husband
and wife, there should be attention to their separate functions; between
old and young, there should be a proper order; annd between friends, there
should be faithfulness.{\:a (3A:4 p. 69)}}}
\noindent
This demarcation of different classes of human interaction
creates a sense of ritual and formality, and Mencius carries
it even further. He ses up rules for society, including
a rather elaborate model for a structured farm
community (called the well-field land system). This system, with its 
stipulations of community service and public work,
is typical of Confucianism's ideas of ritual and propriety.

Chuang Tzu's ideas are quite different from Mencius' humanitarian righteousness.
He states that man's original nature
is a total sense of balance and harmony with nature
itself. One must be at ease with oneself, letting nature take 
its own course, thereby approaching the pureness of Tao: ``He who knows 
the activities of Nature lives according to Nature.''\raise .1truein
\hbox{\:a (ch.6, p. 191)} But where does one find Nature? Chuang Tzu tells us that
``what is natural lies within and what is human lies without, and virtue
abides in the natural.''\raise .1truein \hbox{\:a (ch.17, p.207)}
What this boils down to is that to return to his natural state,
man must look within himself and disregard the human activities without.
This highly individualistic conception of original nature is directly opposed to
the social concept of Mencius.
 
The religious practices proposed by Chuang Tzu are appropriately individualistic.
He says that men should ``forget each other in the workings of Tao.''\raise
.1truein \hbox{\:a (ch.6, p. 199)} The following passage reveals some
 specifics of this``forgetfulness'':

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{Do not be the possessor of fame. Do not be the storehouse of schemes.
Do not take over the function of things. Do not be the master of knowledge
(to manipulate things). Personally realize the infinite to the highest
degree and travel in the realm of which there is no sign. Exercise fully
what you have received from Nature without any subjective viewpoint.
In one word, be absolutely vacuous.{\:a (ch.7, p. 207)}}}
\noindent
In other passages, though, Chuang Tzu says that the ``pure man'' should do ``things
as others would have them do.''\raise .1truein \hbox{\:a (ch.6, p. 192)}
This indecision suggests that the way  a person acts doesn't really matter,
as long as he is in internal harmony with nature. 
 
Mencius and Chuang Tzu clearly differ in their
conceptions of man's original nature; Confucianism and Taoism likewise
differ in their religious practices. Yet it is interesting that as far
as actual religious life is concerned, the two religions are not totally
incompatible. Many Chinese practice a mixture of Confucianism and Taoism:
Confucianism, with its strong social and ritual emphasis,
serves as a public religion, while the individual and more spiritual Taoism
fills the position of a private religion.
The interaction between these two beliefs forms one of the most interesting 
characteristics of Chinese culture.

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\topspace 3in \ctrline{Mencius vs. Chuang Tzu:}
\ctrline{Man's Original Nature}
\vskip 1in  \ctrline{Peter Richert}
\ctrline{Religions of the East}
\ctrline{March 17, 1982}