荀子
Xunzi
Confucianism · personXunzi is a Warring States Confucian thinker whose received text argues that human xing requires deliberate learning, ritual, and conscious activity for moral formation.
人之性恶，其善者伪也。
— Xunzi, Chapter 23 (Xun Kuang)
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What Are the Key Facts About Xunzi?
- Tradition: Confucianism
- Chinese: 荀子
- Category: Person
- Definition: Xunzi is a Warring States Confucian thinker whose received text argues that human xing requires deliberate learning, ritual, and conscious activity for moral formation.
What Concepts Are Related to Xunzi?
Han Feizi 韩非子What Other Guides Cover Confucianism?
Frequently Asked Questions About Xunzi
What does Xunzi mean by human nature is bad?
Xunzi means that spontaneous desires and impulses do not naturally produce good social conduct without deliberate cultivation. The translation 'bad' should not be treated as a metaphysical or Augustinian doctrine of evil.
How does Xunzi think people become good?
For Xunzi, learning, ritual, teachers, and deliberate activity shape conduct; goodness is cultivated rather than simply given at birth.
Did Xunzi and Mencius debate face to face?
No. Xunzi later presents an explicit textual argument against the Mencian account of human nature; the relationship is between texts and positions, not a recorded face-to-face debate.
Sources and Limits
- Chinese Text Project — Xunzi, Human Nature Is BadXing e (性惡)
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — XunziHuman nature, learning, and ritual