No, Confucius lived in the Spring and Autumn Period, while Mencius lived in the Warring States Period. Mencius only carried forward and inherited the Confucianism, and was honored as the Sage of Asia. And Confucius' theory is called the doctrine of Confucius and Mencius by later generations. Confucius had a disciple named Zengzi, and Confucius had a grandson named Zisi. Zengzi was Zisi's teacher, and Zisi was Mencius's teacher
Relationship between Mencius and Confucius
According to textual research, Mencius was born in the 17th year of King An of Zhou Dynasty (around 385 BC) and died about the 11th year of King Nan of Zhou Dynasty (the first year of 304 BC).
When Mencius was born, Confucius had been dead for nearly 100 years, and none of his disciples was still alive at that time.
Mencius himself said, "Give to those who have not obtained Confucius, and give to all those who are private." Private Shu means not being taught by someone, but just admiring self confessed students. Mencius is not a student of Confucius. It is unknown who he is. Judging from his own words, he must not be a celebrity.
According to the Historical Records, Biographies of Mencius and Xunzi, Mencius "benefited from Zisi's disciples." Historians believe this statement is correct. Zisi is the grandson of Confucius.
The above statement comes from the Mencius Translations and Annotations by Mr. Yang Bojun, a famous ancient writing expert in China.
Mencius was not a student of Confucius, but this did not affect his deep influence of Confucius' theory, becoming the most important successor of Confucianism, and eventually becoming the recognized second great master of Confucianism founded by Confucius - Yasheng.
Both were the representatives of the Pre Qin Confucianism
Among them, Confucius is known as the most sage and teacher. He inherited Duke Zhou's "virtue" and discovered "benevolence" and "propriety". He raised the value of human beings (obviously different from witches and ghosts), such as benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and trust. However, it is said that after Confucius died, "Confucianism was divided into eight". Mencius and Xunzi are probably the successors of two of them
Mencius, as an Asian sage, mainly invented Confucius' "benevolence" righteousness. First, he further made his own argument in emphasizing the value of human beings, such as compassion (benevolence), shame (righteousness), respect (propriety), and resignation (wisdom), and put forward the theory of "good nature". Second, he clearly pointed out that the standard of regime change is that people are willing to go back. When people's hearts are not on rulers, Rebellion is reasonable. For example, Shang Tang killed Jie and King Wu attacked Zhou