Let us now summarize Mencius’ “philosophic anthropology.”
The human is born with an innate propensity to
achieve the full moral life.
This unreflective spontaneous propensity reveals itself
in the form of certain natural moral sentiments
embedded in the human heart (the four beginnings).
The four beginnings already contain the potentiality for
the highest moral attainment embodied in the “four virtues.”
If unimpeded,
the evolution toward actualization of
these capacities will be realized.
However, there are powerful forces both within the individual
and outside of him which obstruct this evolution.
The vital psychophysical energy of Qi expresses itself
in man’s emotions, passions, and appetites.
It can easily become disordered, unbalanced and depleted.
This imbalance itself blocks
the heart’s inertial tendency toward goodness.
The main arena of this disorder is the realm of
man’s transactions with the outer world through his senses.
There is something about man’s relations with
his environment which creates imbalances,
excesses and obsessions within his Qi.
For ordinary men,
it is the harshness of the sociopolitical environment
which disorders their Qi.
To elite class,
it is the environment’s seductive promise of infinite sensual
delight, power, fame and honor which disorders the Qi.
Nevertheless, Heaven has in fact endowed humans
with transcendental “heart within the heart.”
The heart within the heart is capable of
preserving the spontaneous heart of goodness.
Through moral effort it expresses itself in moral decisions
that are based on reflection and deliberate thought.
It is able to keep contact with the spontaneous heart of goodness
through all the vicissitudes and assaults of our ordinary life.
If one makes moral decisions in an existential sense,
one will be able to gain mastery and
control over the vital Qi of his emotional life.
When the vital Qi is well-ordered,
it will sustain his moral efforts.
He is able to understand the world in which he lives.
He is able to feel at one with Heaven. 
With Heaven’s help,
the noble man can help create a world “out there” in which
all men will be able to reestablish contact with
the inherent sources of their own natures.
In last lecture,
Zhuangzi thinks that the distinctly human consciousness with
its tendency to fix the human on his own individualized heart (成心)
is precisely what alienates him from the Dao.
To this,
Mencius’ reply is that moral consciousness is
the transcendental instrument of human salvation
which unites man to Heaven.
Through his moral consciousness man is at one with the Dao
and is able to harmonize his own Qi with the cosmic Qi.
Man is to fulfill his Heaven-assigned mission of
“realizing the potentialities of his heart” and nourishing his
“floodlike Qi” by living a life based on an unbending moral will.
So much for this lecture.
This lecture mainly addresses Mencius’s philosophic anthropology.
Could you write an essay elaborating on
Mencius’ theory of human nature?
This is assignment for today.
Thank you.
