Xunzi Quotes on Nature
Xunzi, the third of the great classical Confucian philosophers, is best known for his account of human nature, and the quotes gathered here present it. Against Mencius, Xunzi held that human nature is bad and that goodness is caused by intentional activity, that people are born inclined toward selfish desire and that virtue is an achievement of education, ritual, and effort rather than the sprouting of an innate goodness. He explained the very existence of moral institutions by this premise: ritual and rightness are always created by the conscious activity of the sages, and rulers and rites exist precisely because the untrained nature is bad, just as the straightening-board exists because of warped wood. Xunzi also held nature, or Heaven, to be regular and impersonal, observing that Heaven does not stop the winter because men dislike the cold. Drawn from the Xunzi, these passages present nature as raw material to be transformed by deliberate cultivation.
Quotes
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Attributed to Xunzi:
“Human nature is evil; goodness is the result of conscious activity.”
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Attributed to Xunzi:
“If you do not climb a high mountain, you will not comprehend the highness of the heavens.”
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Attributed to Xunzi:
“Heaven does not stop the winter because men dislike the cold.”
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“Human nature is evil, and goodness is caused by intentional activity.”
Quoted in: Fayek S. Hourani (2012) Daily Bread for Your Mind and Soul, p. 336 -
“A questioner asks: If human nature is evil, then where do ritual and rightness come from? I reply: ritual and rightness are always created by the conscious activity of the sages.”
Human nature is evil | Sources of Chinese Tradition (1999), vol. 1, p. 180 -
“The straightening board was created because of warped wood, and the plumb line came into being because of things that are not straight. Rulers are established and ritual and rightness are illuminated because the nature is evil.”
Human nature is evil | Sources of Chinese Tradition (1999), vol. 1, p. 182