On Xunzi's Thought Of Li And Law

Xunzi was the last master of Confucian in the pre-Qin period of China, but his fate was extremely contrasted with Mencius, who was another master of Confucian earlier than Xunzi. Mencius was called as Ya Sheng, which was seen as a sage only after Confucius, and his thinking had been treated as the authenticity of Confucian. Comparatively Xunzi'composition had been annotated by Yang Liang as far as the Tang dynasty. And Xunzi had been treated as deviationism, fallen under the Jurisprudence by some Confucian, because of his different thinking with Mencius. But just as Liang Qichao'comment,"all of the political sciences had just one origin which was from Xunzi'theory since Qin and Han dynasty", the polities were actually under Xunzi'effect, not Mencius who was revered in the temples, in two thousands history in the ancient China.Xunzi was living in the later of Warring States period, just before the Qin Empire unified ancient China. With the impact between ideal and realism, Xunzi innovatively absorbed the theories of Confucian and Jurisprudence. He inherited the Moral Reign theory from the traditional Confucian represented by Confucius and Mencius, on the other hand he integrated the Law of Jurisprudence and Li of Confucian, with this theory Xunzi was the first thinker to integrate the Law and Li. China law system which is one of the most longest history law systems is still playing important role in modern China. So the legal construction in China should think much of the traditional thinking as much as absorbing the western thinking. And the China law system characterize as the integration of Law and Li. As the beginning of integrating with Law and Li, analyzing Xunzi'theory is helpful to understand the core of China law system generally. This article aims to analyze the origin of integrating with Law an Li in China law system through Xunzi'thinking.There are four parts in this article. In the first part, the brief argument had given by the author that the academic and realistic meanings of Li and Law in Xunzi'theory. The second part is analyzes Xunzi'Li for four parts, intending to make sure Xunzi'Li tend to Jurisprudence'Law. By analyzing the characters of polity, class and normality of Xunzi'Li, it is clear that comparing with traditional Confucian'Li Xunzi'Li is closer to Jurisprudence'Law. It is treated as a governmental rule in the political field and a behavior guide in the normal field. The Utopia in Xunzi'design is a class society ruling by the Confucian'Li. Xunzi'juristic theory is discussed in the third part. Though Xunzi'juristic thinking is approximate to the Jurisprudence, its root is also could be found in Confucius'thinking of law and politics. Analyzing Xunzi'thoughts of Li and Law respectively, we can see they could be compatible, which is the base of his theory of integrating with Li and Law. And this is the content of the article in the fourth part. In this part, the author dissertates the model of Xunzi'theory of integrating with Li and Law on the foundation of analyzing the possibility and necessity of the integration. His model is that the force of Li is more powerful than Law, and is the principal of Law. Finally they are integrated in the government by sages.