Xunzi's Research On The Development Of Confucius' Thought On Propriety

The Duke Zhou,Confucius,Mencius and Hsun Tzu are the most important historical figures in the historical development of Confucianism in the pre-Qin period.After the Song Dynasty,as Mencius status increased,people’s understanding of the core of Confucianism gradually gave way from “The Way of Duke Zhou and Confucius” to “The Way of Confucius and Mencius.” Although this understanding is the ideological product from the historical course of the Song and Ming Dynasties,it also somewhat affects our understanding of the ideological connection between Confucius and Hsun Tzu.According to the Propriety Thought,this kind of thought continuity between Confucius and Hsun Tzu is worthy of being paid attention to.Considering Hsun Tzu’s deepening and development of Confucius’ Propriety Thought,Hsun Tzu is undoubtedly an outstanding pioneer of Confucianism just like Mencius,and Confucianism can undoubtedly be defined as “The Way of Confucius and Hsun Tzu.” As the Official Historian Si Maqian once said,“During the reign of King Wei and King Xuan during the Warring States Period,Mencius,Hsun Tzu,et al.all followed the Confucius’ doctrine and carried foward it,thereby making them prominent at the present time.” This is also called.To be specific,Hsun Tzu’s development of Confucius’ Propriety Thought is mainly manifested in:Firstly,Hsun Tzu,from the perspective of theory of “Pseudo” Theory of Ritual,development Confucius’ theory of people’s “habit,” Confucius agreed with the effect of education on people,and believed that “people’s instincts are similar,but their habits are quiet distinct.” Hsun Tzu,based on this theory,held the view that “the mankind is naturally evil,but they are pretended to be kind.” He further put forward the importance of upbringing education on people,and thought that individuals can pretend to be the “gentleman” “saint” through the pseudo of upbringing education.Secondly,Hsun Tzu development Confucius’ virtue ruling from the perspective of the thought of “law ruling.” Confucius advocated that the country should be ruled by adopting rites,everyone in the country should learn rites,and the ruler should carry out the benevolent governance by “using the morality to guide the people,and utilizing the etiquette to assimilate them.” Hsun Tzu agreed that the rule of rites had its own limitations,so he introduced principle of “law.” He increased the principle of law into the virtue ruling,advocated the rule of law to make up for the lack of the rule of etiquette,and further put forward the main principle of morality supplemented by punishment.Finally,Hsun Tzu developed Confucius’ s thought of “Compliance with Laws” pursuant to the “divided” theory of ritual.During the Warring States Period,the old aristocratic class had been gradually replaced by the emerging landlord class.In order to stabilize the social order,Hsun Tzu proposed the theory of “division,” which believed that “division” was an important basis for coordinating the human relations and social division of labor,making the theory of rituals have social order.Through Hsun Tzu’s development of Confucius’ thought of rites from “Pseudo Education”to “’Rule of Law” to “Division.” Confucian etiquette gained new vitality in the late Warring States Period.Hsun Tzu’s development of Confucian rites not only laid an important foundation for the Han Dynasty’s advocated thought of “subduing all schools of thought and only respecting Confucianism,” but also exerted a significant influence on the national governance model of combining rites and laws after the Han Dynasty.Up to now,Hsun Tzu’s thought of rites still has a certain reference significance to modern national governance.