Xunzi

Author: (Zhou) Xun Kuang, edited by Liao Mingchun and Zou Xinming
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1997-03-01
Features: Xunzi is the culmination of the "Hundred Schools Contention" during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, and also the last master of pre-Qin Confucianism. Tan Sitong said, "Two thousand years of learning are Xunzi." Liang Qichao also believed, "After the Qin and Han dynasties, politics and scholarship all originated from Xunzi." Whether these evaluations are excessive or not, at least one thing is certain: as descendants of the Yellow River and Yangtze, to understand traditional Chinese culture and grasp our national spirit, we cannot afford not to read Xunzi. The book should be called Sunqing Shu or Sunqingzi. Its 32 chapters can be roughly divided into three categories: one is composed by Xunzi himself, including 22 chapters such as Admonitions on Learning and On Heaven. The second is records of Xunzi's words and deeds by his disciples, including 5 chapters such as On the Effectiveness of Confucianism and On Discussing Warfare. The third is "records and miscellaneous matters quoted by Xunzi and his disciples," including 5 chapters such as On Duke Ai and On Emperor Yao's Inquiry. The first two categories are reliable historical materials for studying Xunzi's thought, while the latter can be considered indirect materials.