Chapter 35 Xunzi: Human nature is inherently evil

The name of this great man is Xun Kuang, who is known as Xunzi in the world. Xun Kuang was a native of Zhao State. He was born around 300 BC. He studied Confucianism since he was a child. In his fifties, he came to the Jixia Academy of Qi State to give lectures. At that time, King Qi Xiang was in power, and the Jixia Academy with a long history, after experiencing the trough in the era of King Qi Min, has returned to its former bustle to a certain extent.Famous figures in the academy include Zou Yan who is good at talking about the world, Zou Xun who is talented in writing, and Chunyu Kun who is glib.King Qi Xiang also restored the policy formulated during the period of King Qi Xuan, giving scholars a certain degree of official treatment, allowing them to be pampered and well-off, so that they can devote themselves to research.

Before Xun Kuang came, the oldest scholar in the Jixia Academy was named Tian Pian, who was famous for teaching the art of Huang Lao. The so-called The Art of Huang Lao is a branch of Taoism, respecting the Yellow Emperor and Lao Tzu as ancestors, combining Taoism with Legalism, and adopting Confucianism, Yin-Yangism, Mohism and other schools of thought, advocating the realization of social harmony through the rule of law . As we all know, Taoism was originally born in the world, and Laozi and Zhuangzi did not care about world affairs, nor did they want to come out to be officials. "Warring States Policy" records that Tian Pian also regarded himself as disdainful of being an official, so someone came to him and said, "Mr. is of high moral character, and I don't want to be an official. I admire it very much. I want to be a servant under your family." Tian Pian was very happy and asked "How did you know?" The man said, "I heard from the neighbor's daughter. She swore never to marry since she was a child. Now she is almost thirty years old. It is true that she is not married, but she has already given birth to seven children. The husband doesn't want to be an official, but the salary is very high, there are more than one hundred servants in the family, and I want to be one of them."

From this, it is not difficult to see that being a teacher at Jixia Academy makes life quite comfortable.When Xun Kuang came to Jixia Academy, Tian Pian had already passed away. As the oldest scholar in the academy, Xun Kuang quickly won the respect of the students with his profound knowledge and eloquent eloquence. (Non-virtuous and respected persons cannot serve as the sacrificial officer of the academy). Like most thinkers at that time, Xun Kuang also became interested in Gongsun Long's "A white horse is not a horse", which led to his thinking on the debate between name and reality.Xun Kuang's theoretical basis comes from Confucius' theory of rectification of names, which is the "junjun, ministers, father and son, son and son" mentioned many times earlier in this book.

The so-called name rectification is to make the name conform to the reality, that is, the ruler's father must conform to the ruler's norms, and the courtiers must follow the courtier's norms.It is not difficult to see that this is a political and ethical issue, but in the hands of Xun Kuang, he put forward the rectification of names as a proposition of linguistic logic, and used it to deal with the theories of famous scholars and Mohists. Xun Kuang said: "'Name' is used to refer to 'realness', the upper class is distinguished from the lower class, and the lower class is distinguished from the same." This means that the role of names is ethical for the upper class, and logical for the lower class.He believes that all things in the world are too numerous to count and cannot be listed one by one, so they are collectively called "things", which is the "big common name".Under the big common name, there are also small common names. If you want to list some things, you need to use "alias". For example, birds and beasts are a relatively large alias.Under the big alias, there are small aliases, and under the small aliases, there are still smaller aliases until they can no longer be divided.

Xun Kuang also realized that all names are man-made, and there is actually no reason why this name should be used instead of another name.For example, for an animal like a dog, if it was called a cat instead of a dog, there would be no problem.Of course, if a name has been used for a certain thing by convention, it is difficult to change it, so a dog is a dog, and a cat is a cat, and they cannot be confused. Based on the above theories, Xun Kuang criticized famous scholars and Mohists.He pointed out that the "white horse is not a horse" proposition of Gongsun Long and others actually uses names to disturb things. We only need to go back to the source, verify people's common agreement on names, and clarify the concepts of the two aliases of white horse and horse. There is nothing to be confused about.As for killing thieves is not killing people, but using names to confuse names, then we need to analyze the reasons why there are such names, and then observe which one works in real life, and the problem will be solved .

Xun Kuang also took advantage of the topic to say that the reason for these confusions is that there is no "sage king" in the world today, and people's hearts have nothing to maintain.If there is a holy king, he will use political authority to unify thoughts and guide people to the right path, so there is no need to argue.This is of course selling his Confucianism, but it is undeniable that it also represents the desire of the people living in that turbulent era to end the war. Two of the three heavyweights of Pre-Qin Confucianism have been introduced earlier, namely Confucius and Meng Ke, and Xun Kuang is the third.

What's interesting is that although both are Confucianists, Xun Kuang's thoughts are almost in direct opposition to Meng Ke's - Meng Ke's most famous view is "theory of good nature", which believes that human nature is good, as long as it is fully developed, it will form benevolence, righteousness, propriety, Xun Kuang holds the theory of "evil nature" and believes that human nature is evil, and only by relying on wisdom and acquired learning can people be good. This raises a question: Since human nature is inherently evil, why should we promote morality?Is there anything to blame for living by nature?

Xun Kuang answered it from two aspects.First of all, he pointed out that if people want to live better, they must cooperate and help each other to form social organizations.With a social organization, there must be a code of conduct, which is the so-called "ritual". Xun Kuang realized that people have desires.If A's desire and B's desire are not the same thing—for example, some people like to conquer others, and some people like to be conquered—then there is no problem, they can live in harmony.In other words, what everyone wants is not a scarce thing, and they can breathe freely like air without fighting for it, so there is no problem.In other words, people can live in isolation and have nothing to do with each other, and the problem will be much simpler.But the world is not like this. People must live under the same sky. In order to live together without fighting every day, they must restrain their desires.The function of ritual is to establish this constraint.Only with external etiquette can there be internal morality, which is to explain why people want to be kind from the perspective of utilitarianism.

Xun Kuang also demonstrated the necessity of goodness from another angle, that is, non-utilitarian angle.He believes that the reason why people are human is not because they can walk upright and are hairless, but because they have "discernment".Although animals have father and son, there is no father-son relationship. Although animals have male and female, there is no difference between male and female, because of indiscrimination. In other words, it is natural for animals to have father and son, male and female.As for the relationship between father and son and the difference between men and women, they are social relations and the embodiment of civilization.

Some people in later generations believed that Meng Ke's theory of good nature represented the left wing of pre-Qin Confucianism; Xun Kuang's theory of evil nature represented the right wing of pre-Qin Confucianism.This statement is of course a bit far-fetched, but it vividly illustrates the opposition between the two.In fact, Xun Kuang looked down on Meng Ke extremely. He once wrote: "I imitate the old kings roughly but don't understand their program. They pretend to be ambitious and well-informed, and copy the old news from ancient times to fabricate new theories. It is very evil, unethical, and obscure But unable to speak, closed and difficult to understand, but said without blushing, "This is the speech of the ancient sages!"——This is the knowledge advocated by Meng Ke and his like, and the ignorant Confucian scholars in the world followed suit, ignorant of them mistake."

The theoretical differences between the theory of good nature and the theory of evil are self-evident, but what kind of difference will there be in practice?This is perhaps a concern for most people. Simply put, the theory of good nature often leads to the rule of man, because it pins the hope of social stability on the character of individuals, especially leaders; the theory of evil generally leads to the rule of law, because it believes that human nature must be restrained before it can be transformed into good. For the country to be stable and the society to be harmonious, the key is for everyone to abide by the law, instead of expecting some virtuous ministers and emperors like Bao Qingtian and Emperor Kangxi. It is not difficult to see that Xun Kuang's academic views have actually slid towards Legalism.At that time, the country that practiced the rule of law most thoroughly was Qin.From the records of "Xunzi", we can know that Xun Kuang has been to Qin State, and met Qin Zhaowang and Fan Ju, and expressed his opinions on Qin State's internal affairs and foreign affairs. Xun Kuang believes that the Qin State is already very powerful, with a superior geographical location, gentle people, simple customs, low-level officials are diligent in their work, and upper-level bureaucrats are law-abiding. This is all due to the implementation of the rule of law.But Qin still has room to move forward.Xun Kuang's ideal politics is "kingly way", followed by "hegemony".According to the domineering standard, the Qin State has reached its peak and is impeccable, but there is still a certain distance from the kingly way.He advised those in power in the Qin State that the power of force is limited, they must be restrained in the use of force, and they must pay attention to literature and morality in retrospect. Only by combining literature, governance and martial arts can they achieve the ideal state of kingship. Here, the differences between Xun Kuang and Meng Ke are again reflected. Meng Ke also talked about kingship and domineering, and he believed that kingship and domineering are completely opposite.Xun Kuang believed that kingly way and hegemony are the same thing, but kingly way is higher and more thorough than hegemony. This kind of disagreement is also reflected in their evaluation of Duke Huan of Qi. Meng Ke despised Duke Huan of Qi. He once said something like this: "Zhongni's disciples didn't mention Qi Huan and Jin Wen. Why? Politics are out of place." Xun Kuang believed that Duke Huan of Qi had great festivals in the world.Duke Huan of Qi appointed Guan Zhong, boldly reformed the current disadvantages, strengthened the strength of the country, improved the quality of the army, and then respected the king and fought against the barbarians, shouldn't he be hegemony? So, from domineering to kingly, how to perfect it?Xun Kuang pointed out that it is necessary to "cultivate rituals", including cultural, moral, ideological and other aspects go hand in hand to achieve the goal of "convincing people's hearts".It can be said that domineering means convincing people with strength, and kingly way means conquering people with virtue.In Xun Kuang's thinking, convincing people with strength is a necessary means, while convincing people with virtue is a higher pursuit. Xun Kuang lived in Qi State for many years. Later, because someone spoke ill of him in front of the King of Qi, he left Qi State and went to Chu State.Lord Chunshen admired Xun Kuang very much and made him the county magistrate of Lanling (now Lanling, Shandong). From then on, Xun Kuang settled down in Lanling, opened a museum there to teach students, and spread his knowledge. Among Xun Kuang's disciples, the two most famous were Li Si and Han Fei, who were also two heavyweight figures in the late Warring States period.About their story, this book will tell soon.In addition, although there are a few people who are not as famous as Li and Han, they are not ordinary people. Among them was Zhang Cang, who studied "Zuo Zhuan" from Xun Kuang. After Qin unified the world, he served as the censor of the Qin Dynasty. Later, he followed Liu Bang to conquer the world.Jia Yi, Zhang Cang's student, was a famous writer in the early Han Dynasty. There is also Fu Qiubo, a well-known educator at the turn of the Warring States Period and the Qin and Han Dynasties. Among his students was Liu Jiao, the younger brother of Liu Bang, who made great achievements in the Chu-Han War. king.