Realizing that he was destined to be unable to implement the ideas of "royal way" and "benevolent government" in the state of Qi, Mencius resolutely gave up the high-ranking official Houlu bestowed by King Xuan of Qi and returned to the state of Zou with his disciples.

Later, Mencius recounted his travels to other countries.

This "other country" actually includes the Song Kingdom.

Mencius first visited the Song kingdom after the Song king expelled his brother Ji Chengjun and established himself as king, but Mencius realized that the Song kingdom would change as a result, and went to the Song kingdom in the hope of fulfilling his ambitions.

Because the Song state at that time was very immature in Mencius's view, and did not already have a well-established concept of statecraft like the Qi state, perhaps he could persuade the Song Wangyan, who should have been called Song Junyan at the time, to implement the benevolent government he advocated.

But it is a pity that Dai Yan of Song was a monarch who admired force, so that Mencius's visit to Song ended in failure.

And it was during that period that Mencius became acquainted with Hui An.

At that time, Hui Ang was still very young and had not yet been born in the Song Kingdom, and the only thing he was valued for was the title of "Hui Shi's nephew".

When Mencius gave a lecture at the opening of the Song Kingdom, Hui Ang also went to listen to it, and specifically asked Mencius for advice on "benevolent government"—the only gain Mencius had in the Song Kingdom at that time.

It is worth mentioning that during this time, Mencius also became acquainted with Teng Hong, the Duke of Teng Yuan, who was still a prince at that time.

After about a year or so, Mencius returned to the state of Zou and finally decided to go to the state of Wei.

At that time, the Wei State had actually declined, but it is undeniable that the Wei State has always been the "cultural center" of the world, especially in the decades when Hui An's clan uncle Hui Shi was the minister of state, scholars from all over the world flocked to the Wei State, until the Qi State built the Jixia School Palace, and Hui Shi was replaced by Zhang Yi, losing the phase of the Wei State, the "cultural center" of the world, which gradually shifted to the Qi State.

Before Mencius visited Wei, Teng Dinggong, the monarch of Teng, died, and Teng Hong, the Duke of Teng Yuan, succeeded him.

Although Teng Yuan gladly accepted and conscientiously governed the country according to Mencius's ideas, Mencius also understood that Teng was too young to truly realize his ideas, so he still embarked on a journey to Wei after spending two years in Teng.

When Mencius arrived in Wei, the state of Wei was overwhelmed by the state of Qin, and the monarch of Wei at that time, "King Hui of Wei (i.e., King Hui of Liang) Wei 罃 (yīng)", asked Mencius for advice on how to defeat the Qin state.

But it is a pity that what this Wei king wants is how to defeat Qin as soon as possible, and he needs military sages like Sun Wu, Wu Qi, and Sun Bin, not Confucian sages like Mencius who advocate benevolent government, so Mencius failed to get the attention of King Wei Hui.

The following year, King Wei Hui died and was succeeded by the "Wei Xiang King Wei Hei", and Mencius visited Wei Xiang again, but he found that Wei Xiang was far less wise than his father, Wei Hui Wang, and was eager for success and profit, but refused to listen to his advice.

At this time, King Qi Wei of Qi passed away and King Xuan of Qi succeeded to the throne, so Mencius left Wei and went to Qi again to ask to see King Xuan of Qi.

After the second failed lobbying of Qi, Mencius returned to Zou.

At this time, Dai Yan, the monarch of the Song State, had established himself as the king, and at this time, Hui Ang had already appeared in the Song State and persuaded the Song Wang Yan with Mencius's remarks that "the benevolent are invincible".

Upon learning of this, Mencius was overjoyed and visited the Song Kingdom again, where he stayed for several years.

However, during this period, Mencius gradually discovered that although Song Wangyan accepted Hui An's remarks that "the benevolent are invincible", his own character of advocating force did not change, and to put it bluntly, the purpose of Song Wangyan's benevolent government was to strengthen the national strength of the Song State so that it could attack other countries in the future.

This made Mencius feel a little disappointed.

It just so happened that at this time, Lu Pinggong, the king of the Lu State, wanted to reuse Mencius, and asked Le Zheng, a disciple of Mencius who was an official in the Lu State at the time, to invite Mencius to go to the Lu State.

So Mencius left the Song kingdom and came to the Lu kingdom.

However, at this moment, Lu Pinggong's favored courtier "Zang (zāng) cang" spoke ill of Mencius in front of the monarch, causing Lu Pinggong to change his mind.

Hou Le was telling Mencius about this, and Mencius sighed: "I can't see Lu Hou, but it's the time of the day, and it's because of that Zang Cang?" ”

In addition to sighing, Mencius returned to Zou with regret.

And his disciple Le Zheng also resigned from his official position in the Lu State and returned to the Zou State with his teacher.

After that, Mencius no longer traveled around the world, but stayed in Zou to teach his disciples and compile Mencius, that is, what he saw and heard during his travels around the world, as well as his dialogues with the monarchs of various countries.

From his first visit to Qi at the age of forty-five to his return to Zou at the age of sixty, Mencius spent nearly twenty years promoting his ideas, visiting Qi, Wei, Song, Teng and other countries.

Among these countries, Teng was the only one that completely implemented his benevolent ideas, followed by Song, which implemented his benevolent ideas with reservations, and as for Qi, Wei and other countries, his ideas were not taken seriously in the slightest.

Because of this, Mencius was very sad and angry that Teng was attacked, but it was the Song State that attacked Teng, which made him even more saddened - because the Song State implemented Hui An's benevolent government policy, and Hui An's benevolent government policy was actually his Meng Ke's benevolent policy.

Therefore, when the two countries of Song and Teng went to war, it seemed to Mencius as if his two disciples were killing each other, how could this not make him feel sad?

But even so, Mencius still retains some tolerance for the Song state, especially when facing Hui'an.

He said to Hui An: "When the old man saw the current monarch of Wei, Wei Hei, he once said to him, when the monarch of the country today, there is no one who is not fond of killing, if there is a monarch who is not fond of killing, the people of the whole world will look up to him and attach themselves to him, just like water flowing downward, who can stop it?" The king of Song wanted to carry out royal government, but he killed too much, and the monarch who was thirsty for murder was destined to be unable to seize the world. ”

"Taught below." Hui Ang said respectfully.

Looking at the respectful Hui An, Mencius let out a long sigh.

In fact, he also understands that although Hui Ang is not his disciple, but in the area of royal road and benevolence, Hui Ang is not inferior to his real disciple, and the most important thing is that Song Wang Yan, that monarch still can't really understand the truth of "the one who pretends to be benevolent with strength, and the king who is benevolent with virtue".

But even so, Mencius still had expectations for the Song state.

This expectation, of course, does not refer to the sudden change of heart of Song Wangyan, but to the crown prince of the Song Kingdom, "Dai Wu", or "Wang Ziwu".

As early as many years ago, when Mencius realized that the character of the Song Dynasty was difficult to reverse, he suggested that Hui Ang pay attention to the cultivation of the crown prince Dai Wu, after all, the Song Wang Yan is now more than fifty years old, and he may die in a few years, and at that time, the Song State will be inherited by the crown prince Dai Wu, if the crown prince Dai Wu can completely implement the "benevolent government" advocated by him Meng Ke and Hui An, the Song State can completely become a country with benevolent politics.

At that time, his Meng Ke's ideas may be implemented in the Song Kingdom.

Hearing this, Hui Ang hurriedly said: "Master rest assured, I always remember the master's teachings, and I dare not neglect the teachings of the prince. ”

Seeing this, Mencius nodded with satisfaction.

In the next few days, Hui Ang and Meng Zhong lived in Mencius's house and listened to Mencius's lectures on the "royal way" and "benevolent government".

After all, although Meng Zhong was a disciple of Zhuangzi, who made him quite familiar with Confucianism, coupled with his intelligence and cleverness, Mencius was eager to teach him Confucianism.

As for Meng Zhong, he is in line with the idea of having more skills and not pressing himself, and he also humbly absorbs Mencius's thoughts, anyway, he has already learned the academic knowledge of Taoism, fame, and soldiers, and it is not a bad thing to improve the Confucianism that he has already involved.

Just like his brother-in-law Hui An, this one takes into account various academic schools such as Taoism, fame, law, Mo, and Confucianism.

I have to say that compared with the Confucianism of the Confucius period, Mencius's Confucianism has indeed risen to a higher level, at least it has "said something", and many of his thoughts are correct propositions.

For example, "the one who pretends to be benevolent with strength, and the king who is benevolent with virtue", which is the same as the truth that Zhuangzi once taught Meng Zhong, "Using sophistry can only make people speak, and using reason to argue can convince people".

It is worth mentioning that after about three or five days of teaching Meng Zhong, Mencius suddenly asked him: "In a few days, your brother Hui'an will return to Teng, would you like to stay with the old man?" ”

"Is this going to accept this son as a disciple?"

Whether it was Hui An, or Wanzhang, Gongsun Chou and other disciples of Mencius, they were all taken aback by this.

But calm down and think about it carefully, Wan Zhang, Gongsun Chou and others are also inclined to this little brother to become their little junior brother, after all, this son's talent is indeed not to be underestimated.

But in the end, Meng Zhong politely declined, and he said with a smile: "Master Zhuang will beat me to death with his crutch." ”

"Respect the teacher, good."

Although Mencius nodded and praised Meng Zhong, others could see that he had some regrets about it.

It is no wonder that, after all, after giving up on the implementation of his ambitions, Mencius devoted all his energy to teaching his disciples, and regarded "obtaining the world's talents and educating them" as the happiest thing, and now, he suddenly discovered Meng Zhong, a beautiful jade that was still being carved, how could he endure it?

But it's a pity that Meng Zhong already has a teacher for this piece of beautiful jade, and this teacher is still Zhuang Zhou and Zhuang Fuzi, whom Meng Ke respects.

In the end, after living in Mencius's residence for about ten years, Hui Ang took Meng Zhong and prepared to leave.

Seeing this, Mencius gave Meng Zhong a copy of "Mencius" - in fact, it was only the upper part, which was copied by Mencius's disciples such as Wanzhang and Gongsun Chou in the past few days and nights.

In addition, Mencius also told Meng Zhong that after he and his disciples perfected the lower part of "Mencius", he would also copy a copy and send it to Meng Zhong.

"Do you want to accept it?"

Considering Zhuangzi's attitude towards this, Meng Zhong was a little hesitant.

However, Hui Ang blinked his eyes and said, "Ah Zhong, the elder gives it, you can't say goodbye." ”

Looking at the smile on his brother's face, Meng Zhonghu asked suspiciously, "Brother, why do you feel that you are smiling a little gloating......

"Yes?" Hui Ang immediately pretended to be serious.

In fact, he did look forward to certain things, such as Mencius asking him to bring a letter to Zhuangzi......

Well, he's really looking forward to it.

Hey!

At the beginning of October, Hui Ang returned to the territory of Teng and returned to the camp of the Song army with Meng Zhong and the cart of bamboo slips that Mencius had given Meng Zhong.

At this time, they learned that the Song army had attacked Tengcheng again a few days ago, and broke through the outer city of Tengcheng, leaving Teng with only one sub-city.

Teng Qi, the monarch who had just succeeded Teng Guo, died on the outer city wall, and his younger brother Teng Hao succeeded to the throne.

The war between Song and Teng will finally come to an end.