孔子之後，儒家著作確切傳流下來的，首先是孟子七篇。談孟子的教育思想，便以這七篇為根據。七篇的篇名是：梁惠王、公孫丑、滕文公、離婁、萬章、告子和盡心；每篇分上下，今日流傳的書名便是「孟子」。後世把孟子毫無疑義的歸入於儒家，是在孟子這本書中看出了孔子思想的承傳。而孟子出生於孔子之後一百多年，已經進入東週的戰國時期、政治和社會狀況距離「先王」時代的理想愈去愈遠，是有識之士無法存而不論的。所以孟子表現了自己的觀點和主張，而教育和政治與社會不能分割，因為教育必須在穩定的政治狀況下，才能正確而有系統實行，對於這一方面，孟子也提出了自己的看法。最後是孟子的全部教育主張。本段便以這四項為主來加以申述。

A little more than one hundred years after the death of Confucius, one of his contemporaries, Mencius（372—287 BC）carried on and developed his school, the so—called Confuciuism. Through self—study of Confucius and Chinese classics, Mencius adopted Confucius’ thoughts and the basic Chinese philosophy from ancient till the later Chou Dynasty. In his book entitled Mencius clearly showed this approach. In addition, he advocated his own concepts about virtues, Man, politics and education. Among philosophical concepts of Mencius, one was the concept of human spirit of “Jen”（Benevolence）which was the spirit of Heaven and the Earth actualized in the creation of the universe. This was viewed as Tien—Tao in Chinese philosophy. Confucius derived Jen—Tao from Tien—Tao and Mencius made it clear with more explanations. The second concept of Mencius was that he emphasized the orthodox of Chun-Chiu（The Spring and Autumn Annals）and said that it threatened rebellions and wicked sons. The third concepts of Mencius was that like Confucius, Mencius disgusted those who showed honesty but not really were. Such a kind of people might be popular because they conform to the mass, but they were not in congruence with righteousness. Mencius had his own unique concepts also. At first, Mencius advocated Jen—Yu as the core of Jen—Tao and as the principle of Wang—Tao. The latter meant moral politics practiced by virtuous king or prince. Confucius had said that Jen was the love of mean while Mencius adopted it. Bust Mencius added Yi to Jen. Yi meant “ought to”and “ought not to”with regard to conduct. He said that everyone should behave according to Jen—Yi, so would the king and prince. He said：”One who I loves others is beloved, and one who respects others is respected. ”Furthermore, “the king of prince who loves his people and does the rights to his people is worshiped, and his nation or state will be in order and strong.” Mencius believed that human nature was good. He insisted that human nature was good because there were four virtues rooted in the mind；namely, benevolence（Jen）was the root of kindness and pittying；righteousness（Yi）was the root of shame and aversion；courtesy（Li）was the root of abdication；intellect （Chih）was the root of right or wrong. To keep the mind untouched by desires was one way to be good, and to nourish the will for its stillness was another. He said：”Anyone who nourishes ones “big body”（the mind）can a sage, and who nourishes ones “small body”（mouth and stomach）will be little. “ Thus Mencius advocated his doctrine in education. He believed that the purpose of education was to educate man to maintain his good nature through keeping the mind unmoved neither by internal desires his good nature through keeping the mind unmoved neither by internal desires nor by external beguiles. A professional teacher had his rules and instruments which would not be destroyed by the Stupid or the unable. Even to refuse teaching an uneducable was a way of education because the rejection was a lesson. To Mencius, the most important teaching was to teach how to serve parents and elders. In Politics, education was the most important policy because to educate people made people love the king or prince while do good things for people only made them admit him. Mencius said “One had three sources of pleasantness：first, parents are alive and brothers need no concern；to have nothing to be ashamed of in facing the heaven and men；and third, to teach the distinguished and the gifted.”