The Concept of “a Trust” and Its Relevance to the Right of Rebellion: Mencius and Locke

초록

This paper explores whether Mencius defends the people’s right of rebellion by applying the concept of a trust to his political thoughts. Although previous literature has developed several arguments on Mencius’ position on the right, and there exists a deep controversy in their conclusions, those conclusions have several problems. 1) They are rather derivative of nearby theses, such as Mencius doctrine of human nature, Heavenly Mandate, or Kingly Governance. Related to this, 2) they do not suggest specific and proper criteria for a right to revolt so that the meaning of the right remains ambiguous in the literature. As a result, 3) the controversy is primarily an interpretational issue concerning the same paragraphs in the Mencius rather than a product of reasoning. This paper draws a comparison between Mencius and Locke’s logic concerning the right of rebellion by reorganizing Mencius’ political thought into the Lockean concept of a trust. By focusing on the critical difference of the role of the people between two philosophers, the paper concludes that Mencius does not support people’s right of rebellion. © Institute of Confucian Philosophy and Culture, 2021.

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