Mengzi complained that “the doctrines of Yang Zhu and Mozi fill the world! … Yang is ‘for oneself.’ This is to not have a ruler. Mo is ‘impartial caring.’ This is to not have a father. To not have a father and to not have a ruler is to be an animal” (3B9.9). In response to Mohist impartialism, Mengzi argues that human nature places constraints on what Way humans can and should follow. It would have seemed no more plausible to Mengzi's contemporaries than it does to us that all of society can be made to care as much for strangers as for their own family “as easily as” soldiers can be trained to march onto burning ships to die (cf. Chapter 3, §VI.F). In appealing to human nature against the Mohists, Mengzi agrees with Yáng Zhū 楊朱. However, Mengzi argues against Yang Zhu that there is more to human nature than the desire for survival and physical satisfaction. Compassion for the suffering of others and disdain to do what is shameful are also parts of human nature.

So it is impossible to understand Mengzi without understanding how his work is a reaction to not only the early Mohists but also to Yang Zhu.