 The term “nature” occurs in only 17 passages in the Mengzi (3A1, 4B26, 6A1–4, 6A6, 6A8, 6B15, 7A1, 7A21, 7A30, 7A38, 7B24, 7B33), and the specific phrase “[human] nature is good” only occurs in two of these (3A1, 6A6). However, there is some plausibility to Zhu Xi’s suggestion that the latter claim is operative in many passages where it is not mentioned explicitly, because of how intimately it is connected with other aspects of Mencius’s view (Tiwald and Van Norden 2014, 213). This will become clearer as we consider Mencius’s critiques of other philosophers in his era.