Abstract

This chapter explores Mencius’s view on the kind of effort that is needed to attain a state in which one is fixated on propriety. In Mencius 2A:2, Mencius claims that he attained the unmoved xin 心 (heart/mind) at the age of forty. Very roughly, we may understand the unmoved xin as a state in which xin is fixated on propriety. That Mencius attained the unmoved xin only when he was forty suggests that xin’s fixation on propriety is not a given state. In the following, I will discuss why, in Mencius’s view, xin is not by default in the unmoved state. Once we have a better understanding of what the obstacle is, we can better understand what needs to be done to attain the unmoved xin.