Xunzi argued human nature is crude but can be carved into goodness
The Confucian thinker Xunzi declared that people are born loving profit and that left alone this breeds violence and theft, putting him at odds with Mencius. Yet he also thought humans utterly improvable through teachers and ritual. Later ages misread him as a pessimist, and only in the 20th century did his reputation recover.
Xunzi, born Xun Kuang in the state of Zhao, probably around 310 BCE, lived through the violent Warring States era, when rival schools such as Daoism, Mohism and Legalism competed to advise rulers. As a teenager he went to the Jixia Academy in Qi, the leading philosophical centre of its day, learning the formal art of persuading kings. He later spent time in Chu, where he became accomplished in the fu style of poetry, though his book of poems is lost.
Returning to Qi, he was honoured by King Xiang with the rite of offering wine three times, reserved for the most respected scholar, and was called the most revered of teachers. His pupils included Han Fei and Li Si, both associated with Legalism; Li Si's rise as chancellor of Qin later tarnished Xunzi's name. Visiting Qin around 265 BCE, he praised its efficiency but warned King Zhaoxiang that ruling by fear without Confucian scholars would unite neighbours against it. The king was unmoved.
In 240 BCE he became magistrate of Lanling in Chu, lost the post when his patron Lord Chunshen was assassinated in 238, and stayed there until his death, possibly in his nineties. His famous chapter on human nature uses a word often rendered evil, though scholars prefer bad, odious or crude. The point is that goodness is a product of shaping, as a craftsman hones wood, rather than something inborn.
He differed from other Confucians by urging people to copy recent rulers rather than ancient ones, and he valued music and the correct use of names. From the Tang dynasty onward his views were simplified and condemned, and Neo-Confucians promoted Mencius instead, placing the Mencius among the Four Books. Modern East Asian scholars have since restored his standing.
Source: Xunzi (philosopher)
