Etiquette Thought And Its Historical Influence

Xun Zi was not only a last great master of Confucianism following Confucius and Mencius but also the epitome of various schools in the Pre-Qin Dynasty ;however, there are many questions about Xun Zi'doctrine and his thoughts were censured by the later generations in academic circles in the developing history of the Confucian school and of the Chinese academic study. In the author's opinion, Xun Zi varied with the passage of time, extensively criticized and absorbed the thoughts of the Pre-Qin philosophers, achieved mastery through a comprehensive study of them and founded a broad ideological system of the Confucianists, which kernel was Xun Zi's thoughts of rites.This kind of thoughts both based on the propriety of Confucius, which upheld his status of Confucianist, and developed those of Confucius, which revealed he was a creative thinker.This adjustment and transcendency was mainly embodied through his ritual learning of "make social distinctions clear ", "trust on virtuous man of capacity" and "honoring rites and valuing law" , which on the one hand offered a special contribution to the development of Confucianism, on the other hand which became such the instrument of autocracy that it laid foundations for totalitarianism because of the strong emphasis placed on the compulsory functions of the standard of propriety , righteousness and law. All kinds of disputes on Xun Zi's doctrine arised from these.