Abstract：Mencius’ exploration of human nature and discovery of virtue cultivation approaches made early Confucian thought rich and complete. Mencius used a series of roughly equivalent terms for virtue cultivation approaches, such as “cunxin (存心，retaining innate goodness) ” , “qiu fangxin ( 求放心，finding lost innate goodness)”, and “yangxin (养心，nourishing the mind). As for “yangxin”, Mencius first clearly related it to “guayu (寡欲，reducing desires). This is relevant to his differentiation between “qiu zai wo zhe (求在我者，pursuit of what is inside ourselves)” and “qiu zai wai zhe (求在外者，pursuit of what is outside ourselves)”. Human desires are “qiu wu yi yu de (求无益于得者，what our efforts do not help get as they are outside ourselves)”. We need to restrain our desires by means of negative approaches in virtue cultivation. In Mencius’ opinion, the purpose of “yangxin” is nothing more than showing “liangxin (良心，innate goodness), and not allowing it to be affected by external factors or inner desires. This kind of mental state Mencius called “bu dong xin (不动心，not wavering in the heart)”. To reach this state, one need to take the approach of “zhiyan yangqi (知言养气，understanding words and cultivating virtues)”. This is the most important part in Mencius’ understanding of virtue cultivation. It can be taken as a parallel development of the two cultivation approaches, “zhiyan’, “jiyi (集义，promoting righteousness)” and “yangqi”. Mencius’ argument of “zhitian (知天, knowing one’s destiny) ” and “shitian (事天, following one’s destiny) ” suggests that we can only achieve perfect human nature by way of virtue cultivation on the premise that we understand nature and human follow its own law. We need to draw a clear line between virtue cultivation and destiny as the former depends on ourselves while the latter does not.
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2016, Vol. 33 
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