Why is benevolent government difficult to implement?

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Confucius and Mencius traveled around the world to preach benevolent policies, trying to extrapolate Confucian thoughts and ideas, and to push their hearts to the national army and then to the people. But in the whole implementation process, they encountered many difficulties, so why can't Confucius and Mencius succeed? What's the problem?

First of all, we need to find out what the purpose of benevolent government is. In fact, the most important purpose of implementing benevolent government is to realize kingliness, that is, to unify the world by implementing benevolent government, implementing benevolent government and getting benevolence from everyone. There are many specific measures to promote benevolent governance. For example, Mencius always put forward a point when talking with Liang and Liang, that is, people should have fun together, and monarch music is folk music. If the king himself is throwing a big banquet or dabbling in it, the people are separated, the father and son don't see each other, and they are unhappy, they will only resent the king and the monarch. This is actually not playing with ordinary people. And when the people are happy, the monarch is playing or dabbling, and the people will only think that our monarch is so healthy and happy that you can dabble and play music. This is actually having fun with the people.

At the same time, Mencius was still promoting the Jingtian system used by the Duke of Zhou at that time to Qi Xuanwang. This system may not be applicable to Wei, but it was very applicable to Qi at that time, because Wei was small, besieged by two great powers, and trampled by the enemy every day before planting good land. But it's different. Close proximity is more conducive to farming and adjusting one's own territory. When Qi Xuanwang heard this, Qi Xuanwang felt very good, but he didn't carry it out. He raised two questions, one is like money, and the other is lewd. These are all human beings' biology, and Confucius and Mencius advocated pulling people out of biology, but at the same time Mencius did not deny biology. You can continue your lewdness and good goods. While making good money and lewdness, you should also have fun with the people.

So will Qi Xuanwang adopt Mencius' suggestion? In fact, it is reasonable to deceive oneself, but he can't do it, which is very difficult to do from human nature itself, so Qi Xuanwang didn't adopt Mencius' suggestion. Is this Mencius' measure wrong?

Actually, it is not. The viewpoint put forward by Mencius is indeed a Confucian viewpoint, and his starting point is the internal orthodoxy, that is, benevolence, which comes from the orthodoxy and the original heart. However, if this benevolent policy is turned into politics and, by extension, into benevolent policy, it will eventually fall to the national army. The monarch should be benevolent, draw inferences from others, have fun with the people, and make the world unified and become a king. This is what Mencius and Confucius asked of the monarch. However, this initiative still depends on ourselves. We have said that morality comes from ourselves and is in our own hands, which is the nobleness of being a man. And when benevolence falls on "politics". From the beginning, the national army chose not to cultivate benevolence, chose not to cultivate this benevolence, and let it carry forward. This depends entirely on the past, not on Mencius, nor can Mencius change it. Mencius may influence the monarch and persuade him to cultivate benevolence, but if the monarch doesn't want to, Mencius can't change the monarch's decision, and the decision to cultivate benevolence lies in the monarch's hands.

This is why so many people want to be royal teachers since ancient times, but no one has ever done it. Du Fu once hoped that he could do it and then purify the customs, but he still failed to do it. Zhuge Liang once had such an ambition to help the Han Dynasty. Maybe it was realized in Liu Bei, but not in Adou, not because Adou didn't delegate power, but because he didn't want to change himself and cultivate benevolence, so even Zhuge Liang couldn't change.

So at that time, a hundred schools of thought contended, and all kinds of views hoped that the world would be unified, and the final decision was made by the king. This possibility and autonomy are indeed noble for human beings, but it is a great contradiction for Confucianism at that time, which is both his luck and the misfortune of Confucianism.