Contention Between Hsüun K'Uang and Mencius is a Two-Line Struggle

Abstract

In the Warring States period (475-221 B.C.), there was a fierce struggle on the ideological front between Hsun K'uang (1) and (see Mencius — a Trumpeter for Restoring the Slave System in our issue No. 37). Over the last 2,000 years many historians described it as a struggle between the Confucianists themselves, thereby concealing its class nature. Actually, the contention between Hsun K'uang and was a struggle between the Confucian and Legalist schools after Shang Yang's reforms to decide which of the two would win out; it was a two-line struggle between the new emerging landlord class which advocated changes and opposed restoration and the declining slave-owning class which opposed changes and worked for restoration. When the class nature of this contention is made clear, we will have a better understanding of the significance of the struggle between the Confucianists and the Legalists and a clearer idea of the reactionary and progressive roles played by the two schools of thought respe...