"Transformation" And "Accumulation"-the Two Paths Of XunZi’s Personality Cultivation

Virtue cultivation and personality shaping have always been the key topics of Confucianism.As a master of the times,XunZi also started from his own perspective,constructed a set of moral cultivation system with "ritual" as the core,and proposed two paths of personality development,"transformation" and "accumulation",in order to realize the acquired future of the subject.In the construction of personality cultivative theory,XunZi first started with the interpretation of the concept of "Xin" and "Xing" thus laying the theoretical premise for this thought.In XunZi’s view,human nature can not be called good or evil in the initial stage,but in the interaction with external objects,it is very likely that the uncontrolled expansion of emotional desires will lead to chaotic struggles.In this sense,human nature is evil.Therefore,in order to control this unrestricted human desire,it is necessary to propose a certain method to correct human nature,so as to change humanity by man-made,and thus the necessary premise of personality development can be drawn.On the other hand,the concept of "Xin" is an autonomous being that can make judgments and choices freely,and through its interaction with the "Tao",there is the possibility of being able to recognize and stick to the right way.Therefore,in this sense,people can make an interaction between "Xin" and "Tao"by some ways,so that it can make a value choice in line with the goodness,and then develop an ideal moral personality.That is to say,the optionality of the "Xin" provides a possible premise for the cultivation of the subject’s personality.Combined with the interpretation of the theory of "Xin" and "Xing",XunZi laid the foundation of necessity and possibility for the path of "transformation" and "accumulation",and based on this,he began to analyze the two.Firstly,the path of "transformation" emphasizes that in the stage of the development of the subject’s personality,there must be a method that can govern the human nature which may be turned into evil,so the purpose of it is to transform one’s nature to cure evil.And due to the interaction between "Xin" and "Xing",people can further affect the correction process of the human nature through the maintenance of the "Xin".Therefore,the core of "transformation"can be focused on how to guide the "Xin".In connection with the technique of "governing Qi and guiding the Xin",in a certain sense,the method of "transformation" can be interpreted as a certain way to make the subject go with the Qi and choose the good way.In the specific practice process,"transformation" mainly affects the main body through teaching and the gradual change of the environment,thus providing a powerful channel for the influence of ritual and music.On the other hand,"accumulation" focuses on how the subject does good deeds,and the meaning of gathering behind it also contains moral value.The spirit of learning,the attitude of "Open-mindedness,Concentration,and Tranquility",and the cultivation of the environment can promote the main body to be good and become virtuous,and can choose the good freely in the process of qualitative change.In this process,although "transformation"and "accumulation" have developed into two paths,they are not unrelated.The difference is mainly reflected in the emphasis.The former focuses on governing evil,reflecting the external intervention.The latter emphasizes doing good,and pursue to make people do good deeds consciously and actively.This process not only shows XunZi’s promotion of the spirit of propriety,but also reflects his trust in the subjective initiative of human beings.Through his grasp of the duration of time and through two feasible paths,he allows the subject to realize the qualitative change to the future perfect personality in the accumulation of knowledge and experience subtly.His thought not only provides a new possible thinking way for us to further study XunZi’s overall philosophical thought,but also provides the theoretical support of traditional culture for the cultivation of talents and cultural construction in contemporary society.Compared with the previous emphasis on static concepts such as "Xin" "Xing" and "Qing",this paper focuses on XunZi’s personality development thoughts on the two dynamic concepts of "transformation" and "accumulation",and defines their connection as helping personality development.lt is true that the grasp of static conceptual properties such as "Xin" and "Xing"is an important aspect of exploring the development of the subject’s personality,but at the same time,the exploration of the way by which the subject promotes the personality to goodness should also be fully and specially explored.Basically speaking,"transformation" and"accumulation" start from a dynamic point of view,explaining to us the process of how to treat the "Xin" and "Xing".This dynamic expression allows us to see the feasibility of the thought."Transformation" and "accumulation",as two interconnected paths,connect XunZi’s many concepts related to human ethics and morality,and provide a feasible method for the development of the subject’s ideal personality.The content behind it is expanded into a dynamic and ongoing process,the normal and long-term development of this process is the key to promoting the cultivation of ideal personality.The two paths not only provide us with a new possible starting angle for further study of XunZi’s overall philosophical theory——The theory of personality is analyzed from a dynamic way,and at the same time,it provides theoretical support of traditional culture for talent training and cultural construction in contemporary society.