It means to use your own thoughts to figure out other people's thoughts, to understand a person and to study the background of his era.

"Using one's will to counter one's will" comes from "Mencius·Ten Thousand Chapters 1" written by Mencius in the Spring and Autumn Period.

Original text: Therefore, those who speak should not harm their words with words, and do not harm their ambitions with words. To use one's will against one's will is to gain it. Just like the words, the poem "Yunhan" said: "There are many people in Zhou Dynasty, but there are no children left behind." Believe this, there are no people left in Zhou Dynasty.

Translation: Therefore, those who interpret poetry should not be limited to words and misunderstand the words, nor should they be limited to words and misunderstand the poet's original intention. You must infer the poet's original intention through your own feelings when reading the work, so that you can truly understand the poem. If you stick to the words, the poem "Yunhan" says: "None of the remaining people of the Zhou Dynasty remain." If you believe this sentence, you will think that there is really no one left in the Zhou Dynasty.

"Knowing people and discussing the world" comes from "Mencius·Wan Zhangxia" written by Mencius in the Spring and Autumn Period.

Original text: Mencius said to Wan Zhang: "A good scholar in a locality will be friends with the good scholars in the same township; a good scholar in a country will be friends with the good scholars in the country; a good scholar in the world will be friends with the world. It is not enough to be friends with the good people in the world, but to praise his poems and read his books is not to say that he is a friend." /p>

Translation: Mencius said to Wan Zhang: "The outstanding people in a township will make friends with the outstanding people in the same township, the outstanding people in a country will make friends with the outstanding people in the country, and the outstanding people in the world will make friends with them. Make friends with the best people in the world. If you think that making friends with the best people in the world is not enough, you can go back to the ancient times to recite their poems and read their books without knowing who they are. So, is that okay? To study the social era in which they live is to go back in history and make friends with the ancients."

Extended information

The idea of ??"knowing people and judging the world" is the same as "taking one's will against one's will." , became an important method of traditional literary criticism, and also established Mencius' important position in the history of Chinese literary criticism.

In fact, to this day, no matter how far the emerging literary criticism methods since modernism have gone and how novel they are, they still dominate our primary and secondary school classrooms, university podiums, and In the practice of literary criticism, the methods of "knowing people and analyzing the world" and "using one's will against one's will" are still mainly used.

The so-called "era background analysis", "author introduction", "central idea", "theme", etc., these concepts that people are familiar with are all "knowing people and judging the world" or "using one's will to counter one's will" "product. From this we can see Mencius’ profound influence on Chinese literary criticism, and one of this influence happened precisely through the words in this chapter.

The book "Mencius" is a collection of Mencius' remarks. It was compiled by Mencius and his disciple ***. It records Mencius's language and political views (benevolent government, the distinction between kings and hegemons, and the people). This is a classic Confucian work on political action. Mencius once imitated Confucius and led his disciples to travel around various countries. However, he was not accepted by various countries at that time and retired to write books with his disciples.

There are seven chapters of "Mencius" handed down from generation to generation: "King Hui of Liang" (Part 1 and part); "Gongsun Chou" (Part 1 and part); "Teng Wengong" (Part 1 and part); "Li Lou" (Part 1 and part); "Wan Zhang" (Part 1 and part); "Gaozi" Up and down; "With all one's heart" up and down. The starting point of his theory is the theory of good nature, proposing "benevolent government" and "kingly way", and advocating the rule of virtue. ?

In the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhu Xi combined "Mencius" with "The Analects of Confucius", "Great Learning" and "The Doctrine of the Mean" together to call it the "Four Books". "Mencius" is the largest and heaviest of the four books. There are more than 35,000 words. From then until the end of the Qing Dynasty, the "Four Books" had been a required part of the imperial examination.

Baidu Encyclopedia - Using one's will to counter one's will

Baidu Encyclopedia - Knowing people and judging the world