Etiquette Gentleman Thinking Its Real Revelation

Xunzi is a great and epoch-making thinker in our history. According to the thought of ritual law and gentleman of Xunzi, the law should combine with rite and gentleman. Thus the debates between the Confucianists and the Legalists were concluded and the thought of the Confucianists and the thought of Legalists mixed together. The thought of ritual law and gentleman of Xunzi has laid a foundation of administration thought for the later more than 2000 years'Chinese traditional society.The thesis, contains four chapters, discusses the thought of ritual law and gentleman of Xunzi.The political aim of Xunzi was to build up an ideal harmonious unified society. In his blueprint of ideal society, the idea of rite which reflected the social justice was the premise of his ideal society. It was the gentleman who constructed the ideal society by the method of the ritual law. The first chapter, the ideal harmonious unified society of Xunzi, analyses the idea of"groups"and the connotation of the ideal harmonious unified society and points out that the endless desire which is in contradiction with the limited matter was the everlasting roots of the social upheaval. Only the idea of rite could solve the contradiction. The realization of the idea of rite relied on the ritual law and the realization of ritual law and its idea relied on the gentleman. Thus the ideal of rite, the ritual law and the gentleman were the kernels of the construction of the ideal harmonious unified society and the book of Xunzi.The second chapter,"the imperial law"——the ritual law——of Xunzi, proves that the imperial law is ritual law. It combs the meanings of rite and law and the relationship between them in the history, analyses the extension and component parts of ritual law of Xunzi, brings to light that the idea of rite contained the social justice, and puts forward the reasons and methods of the significant combination of idea of rite and law. Xunzi combined the law with rite, absorbed the strong points of both the Confucianists and the Legalists. The ideas from the Confucianists and the Legalists mixed together.The third chapter,"the imperial person"——the gentleman——of Xunzi, discusses Xunzi's views on the relation between gentleman and confucianist and between gentleman and the benevolent and concludes the image of the gentleman of Xunzi. It shows that argumentation was an important task for the gentleman and analyses the content, style, means and art of the argumentation. It also analyses the close relation between the ritual law and the gentleman in detail and points out that the relation between the ritual law and the gentleman was just like a ring, they interacted as both the start and the end. Thus, Xunzi combined the law with the gentleman, and mixed the ideas of the Confucianists and the Legalists together.The Chinese Communist Party proposed the objective of a struggle to build up a harmonious socialist society on the 16th conference of the Chinese Communist Party. We should strengthen the study on the social construction theory in our history and try to make the past serve the present under the requirement of discarding the dross and selecting the essence. The combination of rite and law and the combination of ritual law and gentleman which reflected in the thought of ritual law and gentleman of Xunzi was a great inspiration to the construction of harmonious society. The fourth chapter of the thesis discusses the practical enlightenment from the thought of ritual law and gentleman of Xunzi which will contribute to a better understanding of the social principal contradiction and the great significance of the social justice for the construction of harmonious society and will contribute to a better understanding that strengthening the construction of law system, extending the socialist democracy, cultivating the qualified citizen and model in new era, and strengthening political socialization are very important to guarantee the social justice and the realizing of the harmonious society.Xunzi's thought of ritual law and gentleman enlightens us that political and legal system and values are not contradictory, like democratic rule under law and moral, democratic rule under law and political socialization, system and qualified personnel, they help each other forward, depend on and support each other, and develop in concert. They should be combined together.