Xun Zi and His Thought
2 min readXun Zi（c.313-238 B.C.），whose given name was Kuang and courtesy name Qing，was born in the State of Zhao and was a key figure in the Confucius school.When studying in the State of Qi，he became one of the celebrated scholars at the Jixia Academy.In his late years，he dedicated himself in teaching disciples and writingbooks，one of which is Xun Zi，an epitome of his thoughts.Politically，he inherited the Confucian thought of li（rites）and considers li as not merely a moral standard but a necessity of governing the country.He also called upon the practice of the “royal regulations”which emphasizes li and fa（standards）：the purpose of li is to educate while that of fa is to rule.The practice of them combined means to restrain the evil in human nature.
Xun Zi epitomized the academic thoughts of the Pre-Qin period.The Book of Xun Zi was the crystallization of his thoughts.As for his political thought，he chiefly inherits Confucian thought of rites and etiquette，which he considers as a sort ofbasic social system that may regulate social relations.As for the theory of human nature，Xun Zi thinks the nature of man is evil，which should be normalized and restricted by”rites and morality”，so he values moralization and study after aman’s birth.The first article in The Book of Xun Zi is“Encouraging Learning”.
Xun Zi’s epistemology is a theory of reflection of materialism，he puts forward a proposition of “achieving calmness by modesty and concentration”.By “modesty” he means freedom from prejudice in the process of getting insight into the objective world.“Concentration”means focusing on what you are doing with full attention.
“Calmness”means observing calmly and maintaining an objective attitude.His epistemology has some rationality.
