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

Mencian people-based legitimacy is 30.孟子：战国愤青的赤子之心’s synthesis of “民贵君轻,” “暴君非君,” and “天视自我民视，天听自我民听.” The episode argues that [[Mengzi|孟子 / Mencius]] makes the people the decisive test of rule: the ruler does not privately own the realm, and Heaven’s approval is legible through the people’s response.

The source presents this as a strong indigenous Chinese resource for thinking about dignity, accountability, and limits on monarchy. When [[QiXuanWang|齐宣王]] asks whether killing tyrants Jie and Zhou was regicide, Mencius’s answer that he has heard of killing the “one fellow” Zhou, not murdering a ruler, becomes the episode’s most radical example.

Key Claims

• The people are more important than the ruler in the hierarchy of political value.
• A tyrant who destroys renyi loses the moral status of ruler.
• Heaven’s will is not treated as private dynastic property; it is read through the people’s seeing and hearing.
• The concept overlaps with Mandate of Heaven Legitimacy / 天命合法性 but emphasizes popular response more than omens or sacred dynastic signs.

Connections

• [[Mengzi|孟子 / Mencius]], [[MenciusText|《孟子》]], and [[QiXuanWang|齐宣王]] - core source material.
• Early Confucian Resistance Politics / 早期儒家的反抗政治 - broader resistance frame.
• Mencian Benevolent Government / 孟子仁政 and Constant Property, Constant Heart / 有恒产者有恒心 - welfare basis for legitimacy.
• Mandate of Heaven Legitimacy / 天命合法性 and Dynastic Legitimacy Backfire / 王朝合法性回旋镖 - adjacent wiki legitimacy concepts.
• Confucian Ideal Governance / 儒家理想治理 - later imperial contrast.