Xunzi, classical Chinese philosopher, believes human nature is bad. On the other hand, fellow classical Chinese philosopher, Mencius, believes human nature is good. In this essay I will go into more depth of how Xunzi’s view on human nature affects his political and ethical thoughts, I will then cover the disagreements between Mencius and Xunzi, and finally, will discuss how Xunzi’s view affects and influences his thoughts on learning and rectifying names.
Section 1: Xunzi: Human Nature is Bad
According to Xunzi, humans are inclined toward chaos because their nature is bad. In other words, he believes humans are born with desires which naturally lead us to fight against one another for selfish gains (Ivanhoe et al. Classical Chinese 298). He believes these innate desires of wanting to have what one wants are not necessarily bad alone, but what makes these natural impulses bad is what comes out of the conflicting reality of limited resources and the excess of human desires (Ivanhoe et al. “Happy Symmetry” 311). A conflict occurs because there is a lack of resources to go around to satisfy all of human desires, resulting in humans fighting against each other to get what they want, and so, left to their own devices, chaos and disorder inevitably occurs (Ivanhoe et al. Classical Chinese 274). Xunzi believes that without intervention, humans and human society are bound to collapse and self-destruct (Ivanhoe et al. Classical Chinese 298). That is, human nature has the natural pull towards turmoil (Cua, “Dimensions of Li” 381).
In order to prevent human’s natural pull towards turmoil, Xunzi believes humans should implement regulations in order to live in social harmony (Cua “Dimensions of Li” 376). Xunzi thinks it’s necessary for governments to implement a set of rules and procedures to follow in order for society to run smoothly. As explained by Ivanhoe et al. in “Happy Symmetry: Xunzi’s Ethical Thought”, Xunzi believes that “control and guidance” is necessary to prevent humans from “driv[ing] us to engage in a continuing struggle of all against all, in which none would realize satisfaction” (310 ). In order to prevent this struggle, Xunzi believes governments should implement laws and procedures, and for social norms to model behavior for people so stability and structure is maintained (Cua, “Dimensions of Li” 376 ).
Furthermore, Xunzi believes respecting hierarchy is essential for political and social order (Ivanhoe et al. “Happy Symmetry” 311). What he means by hierarchy is for there to be differentiations: “it is for noble and lowly to have their proper ranking, for elder and youth to have their proper distance, and for poor and rich…to have their proper weight” (Ivanhoe et al. Classical Chinese 275). Xunzi believes hierarchy offers unequal and structured roles among people which distributes resources appropriately to their roles, and thus resources will be given out fairly according to the ‘weight’ of their roles (Ivanhoe et al. “Happy Symmetry” 311). He believes this is necessary “for society to function” because it solves the conflict between the excess of human desires and limited resources (Ivanhoe et al. “Happy Symmetry” 311). So, in a political light, Xunzi believes hierarchy and laws and regulations are necessary to prevent humans from sliding into their collective, chaotic, human nature.
Likewise, he believes a person can become good and ethical, if they put in ‘deliberate work’ and effort instructed from models and teachers (Ivanhoe et al. Classical Chinese 298). Xunzi puts a lot of emphasis on the importance of rites and rituals, since he believes that they are able to regulate and improve human nature. Rites and rituals include the manner of how people perform a funeral to the mundane and everyday life of how a person treats their elderly grandparents. He believes through the right practice of ritual and rights, a person can become moral and ethical (Cua, “Dimensions of Li” 380). According to Antonio Cua in “Dimensions of Li (Propriety): Reflections on Hsüntzu’s Ethics”, Xunzi believes people can achieve morals and ethics by “nourishing or transforming man’s basic motivational structure”, giving them “regard for moral virtues and the development of moral character”, and by this, “society…is no longer a mere association of men, but a moral community” (380). In other words, Xunzi believes a person can become ethical and moral when practicing the appropriate rites and rituals because it shapes and molds their human nature towards good, and when these rites and rituals are adopted into society, not only does it bring order and prevent the human ‘tendency toward chaos’, but it takes society even further and makes the society as a collective whole, moral and good (Cua, “Dimensions of Li” 381).
Section 2: Disagreement with Mencius
The root of Xunzi and Mencius’ disagreement is their outlook on human nature, one being positive and optimistic, the other being negative and pessimistic. This optimism and pessimism shapes how they perceive human beings, and in turn shapes how they believe humans should behave socially and politically.
Mencius disagreed with Xunzi on the basic view of human nature. He believed that human nature was good, in the sense that humans have the capacity of becoming good, not necessarily that they are completely and purely good to begin with (Lau 546). As Lau puts it, Mencius is saying that “man have natural motives to do good; [mencius] did not want to exaggerate the strength of such motives…this feeling is only literally a ‘beginning’, which needs cultivation before it can become a strong motive force” (Lau 549). Mencius views human nature’s goodness like the beginning stages of seeds, or ‘sprouts’, which have the potentiality to grow given the right circumstances and nourishment (Ivanhoe et al. Classical Chinese 130). Where Mencius believed humans are able to cultivate and grow their goodness through looking at the good that was already existing inside themselves, Xunzi believed that human beings are absent from a preexisting goodness and are instead inclined to evil, so in order to become good, rites and rituals are necessary in order to shape ourselves to achieve goodness (Ivanhoe et al. “Happy Symmetry” 320).
With this being said, Mencius had a different outlook on rites and rituals than did Xunzi. Xunzi put eminent importance on rites and rituals as necessary to achieving order and good, while Mencius thought rites and rituals were a reflection of human’s innate goodness. Mencius didn’t share the same dire and urgent need for rites and rituals as the extent that Xunzi did (Van Norden 179).
Van Norden explains that for Xunzi, people start out not being particularly appreciative of rites and rituals, and so they must be “trained” through learning and practice to appreciate “ritual and morality” (Van Norden 179). While for Mencius, people appreciate morality and ritual from the very beginning (Van Norden 179). So, in other words, Mencius believed that rites and rituals derived and emerged from the already existing good tendencies of humans, while Xunzi believed that rites and rituals were created artificially in order to shape and mold humans to become good (Ivanhoe et al. “Happy Symmetry” 321). In this way, the difference of how they view human nature affects how they view rites and ritual. Since Mencius views human nature as inherently good, he believes that rites and rituals are the expression of what is already inside of us. He believes that rites and rituals stem from the good nature we already inherit. On the other hand, with Xunzi’s perception of humans as bad, he views rites and rituals as separate from us, as something exterior and foreign, which can be used as a tool to shape and bend humans toward morality (Van Norden 179).
Given this, Mencius and Xunzi also disagree on the ways of government and politics. Mencius believed that if the ruler was benevolent, he would be able to lead the country well, because his benevolence and righteousness would affect downward throughout the country, and because of this, there would be order (Van Norden 170). Xunzi had a different approach, as earlier mentioned, Xunzi believed that governmental order and social order could only be achieved through effective practices of rites and rituals, for things to be placed in their proper places, and for there to be effective hierarchies and practices within the government. A government without clear rights and rituals will cause chaos, so be believes it’s necessary that there are standard practices implemented to be followed to ensure order (Cua, “Conceptual Aspect” 385).
It may be said, however, that a benevolent ruler could be the same as a proper rite and ritual, and so Xunzi and Mencius may be in agreement with what is necessary for a government, but the heart of the two’s views are different. Mencius believes in the contagious, trickle-down nature of human good, Xunzi would view Mencius’s view as lacking and insufficient, since Xunzi would believe that Mencius’s view as falsely relying on the assumption that goodness can be absorbed and transferred into practical practice (Van Norden (170)). The only way Xunzi sees someone or the government achieving goodness and order is through ‘deliberate’, constant effort by the artificial practices and regulations and from rites and rituals (Ivanhoe et al. Classical Chinese 298). Xunzi would say that Mencius falsely assumes country men wouldn’t fight among themselves just because their ruler is benevolent, but a benevolent ruler on their own lacks the guarantee of laws and regulations that would prevent people from fighting among themselves. For Mencius, what influences his view is his faith that human nature is good and with a benevolent ruler, his good nature will flow through and influence the country as a whole, whereas Xunzi would think that faith in human good, or that a benevolent king’s influence alone is ridiculous, because it’s inevitable, especially without proper procedure, that a presence of ‘bad’ people will always be there plotting against the benevolent king. So without proper rites and rituals, that benevolent king would inevitably be overthrown. Even if there weren’t people plotting against the benevolent king, Xunzi would believe that without the intentional, careful practice of rites and rituals, the nature of humans will bubble over and human chaos and disorder would occur (Cua, “Dimensions of Li” 381).
Section 3: How Xunzi’s View Affects Thoughts on Learning and Rectifying Names
Xunzi’s view that human nature is bad, affects the way he views Learning and Rectifying names. His focus tends to be one that assumes the worst or, at least, has low expectations for how things start out, and so he has a mindset that wants to prevent what he thinks is inevitable and one that’s driven to improve.
For Xunzi, his view on human nature affects his view on learning. It’s important to note that in the nature of Xunzi’s beleif that human nature is bad, he believes humans can shape themselves into becoming good by practice and deliberate effort (Ivanhoe et al. Classical Chinese 298). In this way, when looking at a human whose nature is bad, he sees humans as lacking and in need of improvement. This entails and shows that he has an overall mindset of improvement. He believes humans, with the nature of being bad, can improve themselves and become good. He has a goal-oriented and progress-forward mindset that humans are in need of improvement and need to work their way up to make themselves better to achieve goodness. This methodical goal-oriented and progress-forward mindset of improvement transfers and reflects over to his view on learning (Ivanhoe et al. Classical Chinese 298).
He believes learning is through “accumulat[ing] little steps”, where these small steps are necessary to lead to “enlightenment” (Ivanhoe et al. Classical Chinese 257). These ‘small steps’ progress us towards our goal—parallel to our goal of wanting to become good through ‘deliberate effort’. In this way, Xunzi’s view of human nature influences his view on learning by method. A similar method is used to achieve learning as it is to attain goodness.
Similarly, he has a mind set of not giving up (Ivanhoe et al. Classical Chinese 258). He believes that “to pursue [learning] is to be human, to give it up is to be a beast” (Ivanhoe et al. Classical Chinese 258). This reflects his urgency of what’s necessary for humanity to prevent chaos. If humans gave up on ritual and rites and the pursuit of being good, then it would lead humanity into an inevitable doom. This is why he emphasizes the importance of not giving up, because effort is needed to get out of the natural state that humans are in. He has the sentiment that humans must work to become good, otherwise there will just be chaos. So, he carries over the same sentiment to learning. He also believes that learning is necessary for ritual, because without learning, rites and rituals wouldn’t be able to proceed into the future (Ivanhoe et al. Classical Chinese 258).
Another area where Xunzi’s view of human nature influences him is in his view of rectifying names. Since Xunzi believes that human nature is bad, he believes that humans have an easy ‘tendency toward chaos’ and disorder (Cua, “Dimensions of Li” 381). He believes that rectifying names, giving correct names to things, and being consistent with names will help to prevent disorder. It will offer classifications that people can comfortably latch on to. He believes that rectifying names is important because it gives order to things. It mitigates chaos through proper distinctions, so that arguments and misunderstandings don’t arise, as well as, offers clarity to ambiguities which could potentially cause conflict and confusion. It prevents confusion since things are clearly defined, leaving little room for misinterpretations. And so, his view on rectifying names is influenced by the way he views human nature, because he finds correct naming as a necessary and helpful tool and function to prevent the human disposition toward chaos (Ivanhoe et al. Classical Chinese 293).
Xunzi’s view that human nature is bad greatly influences the way he views his overall philosophy and influences the way he views politics and ethics. Although it seems pessimistic, anxious-filled, and negative to believe that human nature is bad, in a way, his view is also optimistic. It assumes that humans are capable of becoming good through hard work and effort and are able to overcome the worst of our nature. In that way, it offers us agency, since we are capable of acting to become good. The environment or circumstances around us don’t prevent us from becoming good, instead it’s in our power to work towards a positive end.
Bibliography
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Cua, Antonio S. “The Conceptual Aspect of Hsün Tzu ‘s Philosophy of Human Nature.” Philosophy East and West 27 (1977), 373-389.
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Ivanhoe, Philip J., and Bryan W. Van Norden, editors. Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy. 2nd ed., Hackett Publishing, 2005.
Lau, D.C. “Theories of Human Nature in Mencius and Shyuntzyy,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 15:3 (1953), pp. 541-565.
Van Norden, B.W. “Mengzi and Xunzi: Two Views of Human Agency,” International Philosophical Quarterly 32:2 (June 1992), pp. 161-184.