How do Mencius's 'Benevolence and Righteousness' and Plato's 'Justice' Resonate Across Time?

China News Service, Chongqing, June 13 (Reporter Zhong Yi) Title: How do Mencius's 'Benevolence and Righteousness' and Plato's 'Justice' Resonate Across Time?

—An Interview with Zhang Wentao, Director of the Center for Classical Civilization and Political Philosophy at Chongqing University

As two peaks of Eastern and Western classical political philosophy, Mencius's thought of 'benevolent governance' and Plato's conception of the 'ideal city' have respectively shaped the spiritual core of early political civilization in the East and West. Separated by time and space, they exhibit many commonalities in their pursuit of ideal political order, while also diverging due to differences in civilizational foundations.

Do Mencius's 'Land of Benevolence and Righteousness' and Plato's 'State of Justice' lead to the same destination? How do classical political ideals from the East and West resonate across time? What inspiration does classical wisdom hold for the present? At the second World Congress of Classical Studies held in Athens, Greece, from June 9 to 10, Zhang Wentao, Director of the Center for Classical Civilization and Political Philosophy at Chongqing University, who was invited to attend, recently accepted an interview with China News Service's 'East-West Dialogue' on these issues.

Here is an excerpt from the interview transcript:

China News Service Reporter: Why are Mencius's 'Land of Benevolence and Righteousness' and Plato's 'State of Justice' considered typical ideals of Eastern and Western classical political civilization? Is their core pursuit consistent?

Zhang Wentao: From the perspective of classical political philosophy, the core of 'civilization' lies in the state and politics, and 'political system' or political order is the key to this core. Classical sages in both the East and West have made the construction of the best political system or ideal political order their central proposition, which is the basis for their comparability.

Mencius regards 'benevolence and righteousness' as the core pursuit of political civilization. His ideal is to build a 'Land of Benevolence and Righteousness' aimed at benevolent governance and the kingly way. Its connotations include two major dimensions: first, ensuring the basic livelihood of the people, and second, promoting moral education; ultimately achieving orderly human relations and peace under heaven.

Plato uses 'justice' as a benchmark to construct a 'beautiful city,' that is, a 'just state' ruled by a philosopher-king. The city is divided into three major classes: rulers, warriors, and the populace. Each class adheres to its own duties and practices virtues such as wisdom, courage, and temperance; the rulers prioritize the interests of the entire populace and maintain harmony in the city through institutional education.

It can be seen that in terms of civilizational ideals, Mencius and Plato share a highly consistent core pursuit: both are exploring the best way of life and political order for humanity, rejecting chaotic and disordered social states; both hope to build a harmonious, unified, stable, and peaceful ideal political community through benefiting the people and moral education.

May 18, 2026, Zoucheng, Jining, Shandong. The 2026 Mencius's Hometown (Zoucheng) Mother Culture Festival commemorative event for Mother Meng and Mencius is held. This day is the second day of the fourth lunar month, which is Mencius's birthday. Photo by CNS reporter Sha Jianlong

China News Service Reporter: Both Mencius and Plato criticized the governing philosophy of 'putting profit first.' How do they respectively explain the relationship between 'morality' and 'profit,' or 'righteousness' and 'interest'?

Zhang Wentao: Both Mencius and Plato advocated that governing a country must benefit the people, but at the same time opposed 'putting profit first.' In their eyes, the choice between 'righteousness' and 'profit,' or 'morality' and 'interest,' directly determines whether a country moves towards ideal good governance or degenerates into tyrannical evil governance. The kingly way in Mencius's mind and the philosopher-king system advocated by Plato are two ideal political systems; in contrast, hegemony and tyranny are the political evils born from the governing principles of 'profit first, then righteousness' or 'abandoning righteousness for profit.'

Both pointed out that if society and the country take the pursuit of profit as the sole criterion, it will form a huge hidden danger. If from the monarch down to the common people, everyone pursues private interests for themselves, their families, or small political groups, the entire society and country will fall into mutual struggle.

Both also pointed out that human desires have no upper limit, and greed will continue to expand. The strong will fight for interests, ultimately leading to political turmoil and the collapse of order.

However, they are not completely negating interest. Mencius believed that righteousness itself is the public interest of all the people under heaven; Plato also pointed out that true justice must serve the entire populace, not satisfy the private desires of those in power. To resolve the internal strife and division brought about by unlimited pursuit of profit to society and the country, the core principle is to use morality and institutions to restrain private desires: on the one hand, strictly require and educate rulers and those in power to abandon personal greed and prioritize public welfare; on the other hand, guide ordinary people through education to adhere to their duties and restrain their desires.

Another point needs clarification: Mencius's advocacy of 'the people are the most important, the ruler the least,' and Plato's advocacy of rulers serving the people, are both distinct people-centered ideas. However, these two concepts are both built within the framework of ancient monarchy and are fundamentally different from modern Western democratic systems and cannot be confused. In essence, both Eastern and Western sages hoped to build a stable, orderly, and universally beneficial ideal society by relying on virtue, institutions, and education.

A joint exhibition of Plato's image by the Capital Museum and the French Louvre Museum. (Data map) Photo by CNS

China News Service Reporter: As ideal political blueprints, why did Mencius's 'Land of Benevolence and Righteousness' and Plato's 'State of Justice' diverge into paths of emotionalism and rationalism in their implementation?

Zhang Wentao: The theoretical foundations for realizing their ideal political systems differ, leading to the formation of two paths: emotionalism and rationalism. This is also a direct manifestation of the different characteristics or foundations of Eastern and Western classical civilizations in political philosophy.

Mencius's 'Land of Benevolence and Righteousness' advocates an emotionalist path, mainly relying on 'benevolence' and 'extending kindness.' The essence of 'benevolence' is 'loving people.' The ideal monarch relies on 'extending kindness' to extend familial affection and love from relatives to all people under heaven. The core of maintaining the order of family, state, and world is the love of human relations and moral sentiment, emphasizing the reliance on moral conscience and ethical education to unite the community, weakening the roles of rites and laws.

Plato's conception of the 'State of Justice' belongs to the rationalist path. Although Plato also emphasized unity and friendship within the ruling class, the realization of the beautiful city mainly relies on 'wisdom' and 'rites and laws.' The nature of a philosopher-king is to love wisdom, not to love all people. His rule mainly relies on rational thinking, legislation, and institutionalization, using laws and institutional education to regulate the populace. This also gives rise to a unique paradox in Plato's thought: the philosopher possesses the highest ruling ability but is unwilling to engage in politics due to his love for wisdom and indifference to power; however, the realization of the ideal city requires philosophers to take on the role of rulers.

November 4, 2024, "World Congress of Classical Studies · Reading China · Qilu Impression Tour" event is held in Jinan, Shandong. Foreign classical scholars are visiting the Shandong Museum. Photo by CNS reporter Li Mingrui

China News Service Reporter: Spanning time and space, what inspiration can the comparison of Mencius's and Plato's political ideals offer for contemporary East-West cultural exchange and mutual learning?

Zhang Wentao: The dialogue between Mencius and Plato's thoughts is a spiritual resonance across time and space between Eastern and Western classical civilizations, offering multiple inspirations for contemporary cultural exchange and mutual learning.

First, different civilizations share common values in their pursuit of a beautiful order. Whether it is 'benevolence and righteousness' in the East or 'justice' in the West, both aspire to a good society that is fair, virtuous, and benefits the people. They uphold the bottom line that public interest is greater than private interest and that virtue restrains desires. This is a common value pursuit for all humanity and the basis for civilizational dialogue.

Second, civilizational paths have their own characteristics, and differences should be respected, and strengths should be learned from each other. Confucianism maintains social order through benevolent emotions and human relations, emphasizing moral education and humanistic warmth; Ancient Greece constructs order through rationality and institutions, emphasizing rules and logic. The two models can serve as mirrors for each other. Contemporary society needs both moral emotions to unite people and institutional rationality to regulate order.

Third, classical wisdom can provide lessons for modern social governance. The reflections of both Mencius and Plato on the relationship between righteousness and profit warn modern society to be vigilant against the trend of utilitarianism; the idea of constructing social order from the inside out by shaping individual virtue also shows that citizen moral construction and social governance are complementary.

Although Eastern and Western classical political thoughts are rooted in different civilizational soils, they echo each other and resonate across time and space in their exploration of the path to a better human life. This profound commonality between Eastern and Western classical civilizations indicates that replacing conflict and confrontation between civilizations with mutual learning and complementarity is not only entirely possible but also has a deep historical and temporal foundation. The world today needs to view civilizational differences with an inclusive mindset, learn from each other, and let classical wisdom shine with new vitality in contemporary times. (End)

Brief introduction of the interviewee:

Zhang Wentao. Provided by the interviewee.

Zhang Wentao is a professor and doctoral supervisor at the Institute for Advanced Study of Humanities and Social Sciences, Chongqing University, and director of the Center for Classical Civilization and Political Philosophy at Chongqing University. He is the vice chairman (2016-2024) and council member of the Classical Studies Professional Committee of the Chinese Comparative Literature Association, a council member of the Classical Studies Research Branch of the Chinese Association for Foreign Literature, a senior visiting scholar at the Onassis Foundation in Greece, and a member of the International Plato Society. His main research areas include ancient Greek philosophy, Western classical studies, and classical political philosophy. He has authored "Poetry of Philosophy: An Explication of Book X of Plato's Republic," "Six Essays on Nietzsche: Philosophy and Politics," etc., co-edited "Dramatic Poet Plato," "Mythological Poet Plato," etc., served as chief editor of classical academic series such as "The Collection of Sophists" and "The Collection of Plutarch," and presided over national projects such as "Research on the Concept of Justice in Ancient Greek Literature" and "Research on the Intellectual Origins of Plato's Political Philosophy."