Mencius' Reconstruction of Value Rationality and Ethical Politics: An Intellectual History Examination Centered on the Chapter "First Meeting with King Hui of Liang"

In the political ecology of the Warring States period of "attacking and conquering to become virtuous", Mencius initiated a dialogue of ideas with the "first encounter with King Hui of Liang" and constructed an ethical political system based on "benevolence and righteousness". Its innovation is reflected in three fold construction: at the ontological level, based on the theory of "goodness of nature", through the "four end theory", it realizes the systematic transformation of moral consciousness into ethical order; At the methodological level, using game theory to reveal the drawbacks of utilitarian politics, reshaping responsibility politics with the ethics of "promoting benevolence", using historical criticism to dissolve the logic of violent compensation, and establishing a political contract of "protecting the people while ruling"; At the level of institutional theory, using the Inoda system as a carrier of institutional imagination, integrating moral education with the effectiveness of farming and warfare, forging the subjectivity of the "big man" and organically connecting it with the mechanism of "coupling rights and responsibilities". The ethical and political paradigm provided by Mencius not only provided an order plan of "coexistence of righteousness and benefit" for the Zhou Qin Rebellion, but also provided a historical mirror for resolving the expansion of profit desires and rebuilding moral consensus in contemporary times.