4. His post ended when his
patron was assassinated
in 283 BCE
Ends his chances to put
his theories of
government into practice
5.
6. Hsun Tzu Qin Shi Huang
Influence
Li Si
Han Feizi
7.
8. Way was first pointed out by
particularly wise and gifted people
he calls sages.
Sages - a common
term for an
exemplar in early
Chinese thought
9. How the first sages
discovered the Way?
without the people who have gone
before to leave markers, those coming
after would have no way of knowing
where the deep places are, and they
would be in danger of drowning.
10. •does not get involved in human
affairs.
•much like Nature: it acts as it always
does, neither helping the good or
harming the bad.
11. DOES NOT:
•reward good kings with peace and
prosperity
•punish tyrants by having them
deposed
These results come about through their
own good or bad decisions.
12. FAVOR DISPLEASURE
good harvest eclipse and
and sufficient floods
food
wise simply
agriculture happens
13. Worrying about Heaven’s favor is a waste
of time; it is better to be prepared for
whatever might happen.
There will be some natural disasters, but
if one is prepared they will not cause
harm.
17. Society and Society and
culture bring culture bring
about goodness! about evil!
18. Anyone can be a sage Anyone can be a sage
because of his or her
innate intelligence
because of his or her
and educability innate goodness
19. Questions on how to show that
is human are born evil they can
become good.
Goodness comes about as
the result of social
organization and culture.
20. Social organization and culture
come as the result of :
•the way to live better, and
•the need to overcome other
creatures.
21. •people cannot provide the goods
needed to live, let alone to live
well, except through the
cooperation of other persons
•people cannot make themselves
secure from the various creatures
and forces of nature without
mutual cooperation
22. Questions on how does social
organization bring about
goodness.
Social organization
requires rules of conduct,
and following those rules
brings about goodness.
23. People are born with desires,
some of which are ordinarily
satisfied. When desires remain
unsatisfied people strive for
their satisfaction.
24. And when many persons are
striving for their satisfaction of
their conflicting desires without
rules or limits , there is
contention and strife which
brings about disorder. This is
harmful to every one.
25. By this line of reasoning, moral
goodness is brought about as a
result of the regulation of
human conduct required for
social living.
26. Both lines of argument given by Hsun Tzu
emphasize the goodness is the result of
human creation, either through the
employment of intelligence or through the
making of distinctions in the social sphere.
He differs from Confucius in distinguishing
between goodness and intelligence and in
stressing the actual evil present in nature.
He was born in the state of Zhao in north-central China around 310 BCE.
As a young man he studied in the state of Qi in the northeast, which had the greatest concentration of philosophers of the age. HsunTzu’swritings show him to be well acquainted with all the doctrines current at the time, which he probably came in contact with during this period of his life.
Leaving Qi, he traveled to many of the other states that made up China at the time, and was briefly employed by some of them. His last post ended when his patron was assassinated in 238 BCE, ending his chances to put his theories of government into practice.
Hsun Tzu may have lived to see China unified by the authoritarian state of Qin in 221 BCE.
If so, he certainly must have been disappointed that two of his former students, Li Si and Han Feizi, helped counsel Qin to victory when the Qin government was steadfastly opposed to Hsun Tzu’s ideas of government through moral power.
The most important concept in Hsun Tzu’s philosophy is the Way (dao). This is one of the most common terms of Chinese philosophy, though all thinkers define it somewhat differently. Though the term originally referred to a road or path, it became extended to a way of doing things, a way of acting, or as it was used in philosophy, the right way to live.
Hsun Tzu claims that the Way was first pointed out by particularly wise and gifted people he calls sages (a common term for an exemplar in early Chinese thought), and following the Way as it has been handed down from the past will result in a stable, prosperous, peaceful society, while going against it will have the opposite results.
Given Hsun Tzu’s insistence on the importance of teachers to transmit the Way of the sages of the past and his belief that people are all bad by nature, he must face the question of how the first sages discovered the Way. Xunzi uses the metaphor of a river ford for the true Way: without the people who have gone before to leave markers, those coming after would have no way of knowing where the deep places are, and they would be in danger of drowning.
Unlike many other early philosophers, Hsun Tzu does not believe Heaven gets involved in human affairs. Heaven was sometimes considered to be an anthropomorphic god, sometimes an impersonal force that automatically rewarded the good and punished the bad, but in Hsun Tzu’s view Heaven is much like Nature: it acts as it always does, neither helping the good or harming the bad.
Heaven does not reward good kings with peace and prosperity, nor punish tyrants by having them deposed. These results come about through their own good or bad decisions.
Having a good harvest and sufficient food is not a sign of Heaven’s favor, it is the result of wise agricultural policy. Similarly, events like eclipses and floods are not signs of Heaven’s displeasure: they are simply things that sometimes happen.
One might wonder at them as unusual occurrences, but it is not right to be afraid of them or consider them ominous. Worrying about Heaven’s favor is a waste of time; it is better to be prepared for whatever might happen. There will be some natural disasters, but if one is prepared they will not cause harm.
The views of Hsun Tzu on Human nature are diametrically opposed to those of Mencius.
According to Hsun Tzu, human nature is originally evil, but Mencius says that it is originally good.
Mencius viewed self-cultivation as developing natural tendencies within us. Hsun Tzu believes that our natural tendencies lead to conflict and disorder, and what we need to do is radically reform them, not develop them.
Mencius said that society and culture bring about evil; Hsuntzu says that society and culture bring about goodness.
Hsun Tzu says that anyone can be a sage because of his or her innate intelligence and educability, Mencius says that anyone can be a sage because of his or her innate goodness.
He argues that goodness comes about as the result of social organization and culture.
Social organization and culture come as the result of (1) the way to live better, and (2) the need to overcome other creatures.
The arguments are that 1.) people cannot provide the goods needed to live, let alone to live well, except through the cooperation of other persons, and 2.) people cannot make themselves secure from the various creatures and forces of nature without mutual cooperation.
How does social organization bring about goodness? Hzun Tzu’s answer is that social organization requires rules of conduct, and following those rules brings about goodness.
His theory is that people are born with desires, some of which are ordinarily satisfied. When desires remain unsatisfied people strive for their satisfaction. And when many persons are striving for their satisfaction of their conflicting desires without rules or limits , there is contention and strife which brings about disorder. This is harmful to every one. By this line of reasoning, moral goodness is brought about as a result of the regulation of human conduct required for social living.
His theory is that people are born with desires, some of which are ordinarily satisfied. When desires remain unsatisfied people strive for their satisfaction. And when many persons are striving for their satisfaction of their conflicting desires without rules or limits , there is contention and strife which brings about disorder. This is harmful to every one. By this line of reasoning, moral goodness is brought about as a result of the regulation of human conduct required for social living.
His theory is that people are born with desires, some of which are ordinarily satisfied. When desires remain unsatisfied people strive for their satisfaction. And when many persons are striving for their satisfaction of their conflicting desires without rules or limits , there is contention and strife which brings about disorder. This is harmful to every one. By this line of reasoning, moral goodness is brought about as a result of the regulation of human conduct required for social living.
Both lines of argument given by Hsun Tzu emphasize the goodness is the result of human creation, either through the employment of intelligence or through the making of distinctions in the social sphere. He differs from Confucius in distinguishing between goodness and intelligence and in stressing the actual evil present in nature.
