Xunzi's exposition on "human nature is evil" is an improvement on Mencius' "human nature is good". Logical, unlike Mencius' irresponsible remarks; There is another saying, unlike Mencius' importune. Obviously different from Mencius, his definition of human nature is: "What is the essence of life?" In other words, sex is a natural and primitive natural attribute, and it is a natural instinct that does not need to be acquired. The antonym of "sex" is "false" and "false" means artificial and acquired. For example, benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faith are all "false" and are the result of artificial education. He thinks: "Sex is simple; Fake people, art and science flourish. Without sex, they are nothing but falsehood, and without falsehood, they cannot be self-beautiful. Sex is false, and then it becomes the name of a saint. " Xunzi clearly defined human nature as the natural attribute of human beings: "Hunger means food, cold means warmth, labor means rest, good means benefit, evil means harm, and those who govern by doing nothing are the commonalities of Yu and Jie." It is a social attribute of human beings to attribute benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faith to falsehood.
He thinks that sex is evil and falsehood is good. How to change people from evil to good? Xunzi believes that it is necessary to "turn nature into falsehood" through etiquette education the day after tomorrow: "Human nature is evil, and sex is also false. Today's human nature, born with good and good, shun, so fight for life and give up death; Born with evil, follow it, so thieves are born with loyalty; It is appropriate to be born with a desire for eyes and ears and a good sense of sound, so fornication is born with courtesy and righteousness. But in terms of human nature, obeying people's feelings will be divorced from competition, suitable for committing chaos and returning to violence. Therefore, we should have a teacher's way, a way of etiquette, and then make a speech, which is in line with the arts and sciences and return to governance. However, from this point of view, human nature is evil and its goodness is false. " He believes that all mortals are lewd, greedy, ugly and hateful, which are all manifestations of evil human nature. If we let nature take its course, society will be full of competition, cruelty and fornication. Therefore, we should teach people to be kind by imitating laws and etiquette norms, but being kind is not "sex" but "falsehood".
Xunzi criticized Mencius' theory of "good nature": "Mencius said:' A scholar of man is good in nature. "said: no! It is better to know human nature, but not to observe the difference between human nature and falsehood. People who have sex are born, can't learn and can't do anything. People who are courteous and righteous, born of saints, and those who learn, act in moderation. Can't learn, can't do things, but in people, it's called sex; Those who can learn and do things are called fake; This is the difference between sex and falsehood. In Xunzi's view, Mencius' theory of good nature and his theory of being good at learning and not learning, knowing and not worrying, do not understand the difference between sex and falsehood.
On the issue of human nature, Mencius advocated good and Xunzi advocated evil. In the method that human nature is good, Mencius advocates to promote goodness through education, nurturing and cultivating the bud of goodness; Xunzi advocated that the evil of human nature should be transformed into good by educating and limiting the trend of evil.
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