Mencian People-Based Legitimacy / 孟子的民本合法性

Definition

Mencian People-Based Legitimacy / 孟子的民本合法性 is the doctrine cluster in which ruler legitimacy is tested through people’s welfare, acceptance, and seeing/hearing rather than through ruler possession, private pleasure, conquest speed, or empty Heaven language.

Current Synthesis

The current source set makes people-based legitimacy both moral doctrine and practical governance test. “民贵君轻,” “暴君非君,” and “天视自我民视，天听自我民听” converge into a people-first account of legitimate rule: 孟子 / Mencius treats the people as the decisive test, so Heaven’s approval is legible through public response rather than private dynastic possession.

The Zhouji and Hanji applications turn that doctrine into repeatable tests. A ruler who does not love killing can attract people under violent conditions; a conqueror must repair life rather than merely seize territory; an occupier must discipline troops, reduce burdens, and handle final holdouts without destroying governability; and a ruler’s pleasure project must be judged by public access and livelihood cost rather than classical citation.

The dynastic self-reference problem is the newest current qualification. 袁固生 uses people-based mandate logic to defend Tang’s replacement of Jie, but his question about 刘邦 replacing Qin shows why the logic is explosive inside an established dynasty. The same idea that justifies a founder can make later rulers vulnerable to judgment.

Key Claims

• The people are more important than the ruler in the hierarchy of political value.
• A tyrant who destroys renyi can lose the moral status of ruler.
• Heaven’s will is read through people’s seeing, hearing, welfare, and acceptance, not only through omens or ruler claims.
• Conquest cannot claim the people’s mandate if it kills, imprisons, plunders, and refuses corrective governance.
• Occupation has a positive repair test: discipline, tax relief, property protection, and tolerable law make rule more governable.
• Ruler pleasure is legitimate only when public access and livelihood effects survive the test.
• People-based mandate logic can become a dynastic taboo because it justifies past founding rupture and threatens future rulers.

Evidence

Core doctrine and tyrant delegitimation:

• 30.孟子：战国愤青的赤子之心 links “民贵君轻,” “暴君非君,” and Heaven’s seeing/hearing through the people into a people-first theory of legitimate rule.

Non-killing and popular movement:

• 《资治通鉴·周纪》45｜以史为鉴，君王到底该不该杀人成性？ uses Mencius’s answer to 魏襄王 to argue that durable unification belongs to the ruler who does not love killing; it tests the point against 宋康王 / 宋君偃 and the Liu Bang/Xiang Yu contrast.

Conquest and occupation repair:

• 《资治通鉴·周纪》49丨孟子曰：我教你治国 你却把我当花瓶 says 齐宣王 cannot treat quick victory over 燕国 as Heaven’s will unless Yan’s people are relieved and protected.
• 《资治通鉴·周纪》72丨什么样的人 才是忠贞之士？ presents 乐毅’s post-conquest discipline, tax relief, and policy restoration as occupation repair.
• 《资治通鉴·周纪》78丨齐国命运竟被城管给救了？ says Le Yi avoids storming 莒城 and 即墨 quickly because treatment of holdouts affects already-conquered people’s trust.

Pleasure and livelihood:

• Hanji 919 uses the Mencian garden contrast to argue that a ruler’s pleasure project is judged by public use and livelihood impact, not by prestige citations.

Dynastic self-reference:

• Hanji 392-3 shows Yuan Gusheng using the same people-based mandate logic to defend Tang-Wu revolution, then applying the question to Liu Bang’s replacement of Qin.

Counterevidence & Qualifications

The concept overlaps with Mandate of Heaven Legitimacy / 天命合法性 but emphasizes popular response more than omens, sacred signs, or ritual recognition. Several source cases remain interpretive podcast readings of classical passages rather than full textual history. The occupation cases also show coercive limits: Le Yi’s repair strategy does not erase violence, conquest, or Wang Zhu’s coercive loyalty dilemma.

What Changed

• Added Hanji 392-3’s Tang-Wu debate as a dynastic self-reference case showing why people-based mandate logic can become politically taboo.
• Converted the page to the synthesis-v1 schema while preserving the existing source order.

Related Concepts

• Early Confucian Resistance Politics / 早期儒家的反抗政治 - broader frame: people-based legitimacy is the sharpest legitimacy branch inside early Confucian resistance language.
• Tang-Wu Revolution Legitimacy Taboo / 汤武革命合法性禁区 - political boundary: makes the self-reference danger of anti-tyrant doctrine explicit.
• Mandate of Heaven Legitimacy / 天命合法性 - overlapping frame: Heaven’s approval is interpreted through popular welfare and response.
• Mencian Benevolent Government / 孟子仁政 - practical governance: welfare and care are the positive side of legitimacy.
• Occupation Pacification Strategy / 占领区怀柔治理 - military-political application: conquest must become tolerable rule.
• Shared Pleasure Governance Test / 与民同乐治理检验 - ruler-pleasure application: public access and livelihood judge elite projects.
• Dynastic Legitimacy Backfire / 王朝合法性回旋镖 - downstream risk: founding stories can return as arguments against later rule.