Hsiin Tzu's personal name is K'uang, but he was also known under the al-ternative name of Hsun Ch'ing. He was a native of the state of Chao in the southern part of the present Hopei and Shansi provinces. The Shih Chi or Historical Records says in its biography of him (ch. 74) that when he was fifty he went to the state of Ch i, where he was probably the last great thinker of the academy of Chi-hsia, the great center of learning of that time. The book hearting his name contains thirty—two chapters, many of them detailed and logically developed essays which probably come directly from his pen.
Among the literati, Hsun Tzu's thought is the antithesis of that of Men-cius. Some people say that Mencius represents the left wing of the school, while Hsiin Tzu represents ils right wing. This saying, while suggestive, is too much of a simplified generalization. Mencius was left in that he empha-sized individual freedom, but he was right in that he valued super—moral values and therefore was nearer to religion. Hsiin Tzu was right in that he emphasized social control, but left in thai he expounded naturalism and therefore was in direct opposition to any religious ideas.
Position of Man
Hsun Tzu is best known because of his theory that human nature is origi-nally evil. This is directly opposed to that of Mencius according to which human nature is originally good. Superficially, il may seem that Hsiin Tzu had a very low opinion of man, yet the truth is quite the contrary. Hsiin Tzu' s philosophy may be called a philosophy of culture. His general thesis is that everything that is good and valuable is the product of human effort. Value comes from culture and culture is the achievement of man. It is in this that man has the same importance in the universe as Heaven and Earth. As Hsiin
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Tzu says: Heaven has its seasons, Earth has its resources, man has his cul-ture. This is what is meant [when it is said that man] is able to form a trini-ty [with Heaven and Earth]." (Hsiln-tzu, ch. 17.)
Mencius said that by developing one s mind to the utmost, one knows one's nature, and by knowing one's nature, one knows Heaven. (Mencius, Vila, I.) Thus, according to Mencius, a sage, in order to become a sage, must "know Heaven." But Hsiin Tzu maintains, on the contrary: "It is only the sage who does not seek to know Heaven." (Hsun-lzu, ch. 17.)
According to Hsiin Tzu, the three powers of the universe, Heaven, Earth and man, each has its own particular vocation: "The stars make their rounds; the sun and moon alternately shine; the four seasons succeed one another; the Yin and Yang go through their great mutations; wind and rain are widely distributed; all things acquire their harmony and have their lives. (Ibid.) Such is the vocation of Heaven and Earth. But the vocation of man is to uti-lize what is offered by Heaven and Earth and thus create his own culture. Hsiin Tzu asks: Is it not much better to heap up wealth and use it advanta-geously than to exalt Heaven and think about it? (Ibid.) And then he con-tinues: If we neglect what man can do and think about Heaven, we fail to understand the nature of things. (Ibid.) For in so doing, according to Hsiin Tzu, man forgets his own vocation; by daring to "think" about Heaven, he arrogates the vocation of Heaven. This is "to give up that wherewith man can form a trinity with Heaven and Earth, and yet still desire such a trinity. This is a great illusion. (Ibid.)
Theory of Human Nature
Human nature, too, should be cultured, for, from Hsiin Tzu s view, the very fact that it is uncultured means that it cannot be good. Hsiin Tzu's the-sis is that the nature of man is evil; his goodness is acquired training. (Hsiln-tzu, ch. 2.3.) According to him, "nature is the unwrought material of the original; what are acquired are the accomplishments and refinements brought about by culture. Without nature there would be nothing upon which to add the acquired. Without the acquired, nature could not become beauti-ful of itself." (Ibid.)
Although Hsiin Tzu s view of human nature is the exact opposite of that of Mencius, he agrees with him that it is possible for every man to become a sage, if he choose. Mencius had said that any man can become a Yao or Shun (two traditional sages). And Hsiin Tzu says likewise that "any man in the street can become a Yii [another traditional sage]." (Ibid.) This agree-ment has led some people to say that ihere is no real difference between the two Confucianists after all. Yet as a matter of fact, despite this seeming agreement, the difference is very real.
According to Mencus, man is born with the "four beginnings of the four constant virtues. By fully developing these beginnings, he becomes a sage.
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But according to Hsiin Tzu, man is not only born without any beginnings of goodness, but, on the contrary, has actual "beginnings' of evilness. In the chapter titled On the Evilness of Human Nature, Hstin Tzu tries to prove that man is born with inherent desire for profit and sensual pleasure. But, despite these beginnings of evilness, he asserts that man at the same time possesses intelligence, and that this intelligence makes it possible for him to become good. In his own words: "Every man on the street has the capacity of knowing human-heartedness, righteousness, obedience to law and upright-ness, and the means to carry out these principles. Thus it is evident that he can become a Ytt. (Ibid.) Thus whereas Mencius says that any man can be-come a Yao or Shun, because he is originally good, Hsiin Tzu argues that any man can become a Yii, because he is originally intelligent.
Origin, of Morality
This leads to the question: How, then, can man become morally good? For if every man is born evil, what is the origin of good? To answer this ques-tion, Hsiin Tzu offers two lines of argument.
In the first place, Hsiin Tzu maintains that men cannot live without some kind of a social organization. The reason for this is that, in order to enjoy better living, men have need of co-operation and mutual support. Hsiin Tzu says: A single individual needs the support of the accomplishments of hun-dreds of workmen. Yet an able man cannot be skilled in more than one line, and one man can not hold two offices simultaneously. If people all live alone and do not serve one another, there will be poverty. (Ch. 10.) Likewise, men need to be united in order to conquer other creatures: "Man's strength is not equal to that of the ox; his running is not equal to that of the horse; and yet ox and horse are used by him. How is this? I say that it is because men are able to form social organizations, whereas the others are unable....When united, men have greater strength; having greater strength, they become powerful; being powerful, they can overcome other creatures. (Ibid.)
For these two reasons, men must have a social organization. And in order to have a social organization, they need rules of conduct. These are the Ii (rites, ceremonies, customary rules of living) which hold an important place in Confucianism generally, and arc especially emphasized by Hsiin Tzu. Speaking about the origin of the li, he says: "Whence do the li arise? The answer is that man is born with desires. When these desires are not satisfied, he cannot remain without seeking their satisfaction. When this seeking for satisfaction is without measure or limit, there can only be contention. When there is contention, there will be disorder. When there is disorder, everything will be finished. The early kings hated this disorder, and so they established the li [rules of conduct] and yi [righteousness, moralityJ, to set an end to this confusion.' (Ch. 19.)
In another chapter, Hsiin Tzu writes: 'People desire and hale the same
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things. Their desires are many, but things are few. Since they are few there will inevitably be strife." (Ch. 10.) Hsiin Tzu ,here points to one of the funda-mental troubles in human life. If people did not all desire and hate the same
things------for instance, if one liked to conquer and the other enjoyed being
conquered------there would be no trouble between them and they would live
together quite harmoniously. Or, if all the things that everyone desired were very plentiful, like the free air, then too there would be no trouble. Or yet a-gain if people could live quite apart from one another, the problem would be much simpler. But the world is not so ideal. People must live together, and in order to do so without contention, a limit must be imposed on everyone in the satisfaction of his desires. The function of the li is to set this limit. When there are the li, there is morality. He who acts according to the li acts morally. He who acts against them acts immorally.
This is one line of Hsiin Tzu s argument to explain the origin of moral goodness. It is quite utilitarianistic, and resembles that of Mo Tzu.
Hsiin Tzu also employs another line of argument. He writes: "Man is not truly man in the fact that he, uniquely, has two feet and no hair [over his body], but ruther in the fact that he makes social distinctions. Birds and beasts have fathers and offspring, but not the affection between father and son. They are male and female, but do not have the proper separation be-tween males and females. Hence in the Way of Humanity there must be dis-tinctions. No distinctions are greater than those of society. No social distinc-tions are greater than the li." (Ch. 5.)
Here Hsiin Tzu points out the difference between what is of nature and what is of culture, or, as Chuang Tzu puts it, what is of nature and what is of man. The fact that birds and beasts have fathers and offspring and that they are either male or female, is a fact of nature. The social relationships be-tween father and son, husband and wife, on the contrary, are products of culture and civilization. They are not gifts of nature, but achievements of spirit. Man should have social relations and the li, because it is these that distinguish him from birds and beasts. According to this line of argument, man must have morality, not because he cannot help it, but because he ought to have it. This line of argument is more akin to that of Mencius.
In Confucianism, li is a very comprehensive idea. It can be translated as ceremonies, rituals, or rules of social conduct. It is all these, but in the above arguments, it is taken more or less in the third sense. In this sense, the function of the li is to regulate. The li provide regulation for the satisfac-tion of man' s desires. But in the sense of ceremonies and rituals, the li have another function, that of refining. In this sense, the li give refinement and purification to man's emotions. In this latter interpretation, Hsiin Tzu also made a great contribution.
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Theory of Riles and Music
For the Confucianists, the most important of the ceremonies are those of mourning and sacrifice (especially to the ancestors). These ceremonies were universal at that time, and as popularly practiced they contained not a little of superstition and mythology. In justifying them, however, the Confucianists gave them new interpretations and read into them new ideas. These we find in the Hsiin—tzu and the Li Chi or Book of Rites.
Among the Confucian classics, there are two devoted to the rites. One is the Yi Li or Book of Etiquette and Ceremonial, which is a factual record of the procedures of ceremonies as practiced at that time. The other is the Li Chi, which consists of the interpretations on the ceremonies given by the Confucianists. I believe that most of the chapters of the Li Chi were written by the followers of Hsiin Tzu.
Our mind has two aspects, the intellectual and the emotional. When our loved ones die, we know, through our intellect, that the dead are dead and that there is no rational ground for believing in the immortality of the soul. If we were to act solely under the direction of our intellect, therefore, we would need no mourning rites. But since our mind also has its emotional aspect, this causes us, when our loved ones die, to hope that the dead may live again and that there may be a soul that will continue existing in the other world. When we thus give way to our fancy, we take superstition as truth, and deny the judgment of our intellect.
Thus there is a difference between what we know and what we hope. Knowledge is important, but we cannot live with knowledge only. We need emotional satisfaction as well. In determining our attitude towards the dead, we have to take both aspects into consideration. As interpreted by the Confu— cianists, the mourning and sacrificial rites did precisely this. I have said that these rites were originally not without superstition and mythology. But with the interpretations of the Confucianists, these aspects were purged. The reli-gious elements in them were transformed into poetry, so that they were no longer religious, but simply poetic.
Religion and poetry are both expressions of the fancy of man. They both mingle imagination with reality. The difference between them is that religion takes what it itself says as true, while poetry takes what it itself says as false. What poetry presents is not reality, and it knows that it is not. Therefore it deceives itself, yet it is a conscious self—deception. It is very unscientific, yet it does not contradict science. In poetry we obtain emotional satisfaction without obstructing the progress of the intellect.
According to the Confucianist, when we perform the mourning and sacrifi-cial rites, we are deceiving ourselves without being really deceived. In the Li Chi, Confucius is reported to have said: In dealing with the dead, if we treat them as if they were really dead, that would mean a want of affection,
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and should not be done. If we treat them as if they were really alive, that would mean a want of wisdom, and should not be done." (Ch. 2.) That is to say, we cannot Ireat the dead simply as we know, or hope, them to be. The middle way is to treat them both as we know and as we hope them to be. This way consists in treating the dead as if they were living.
In Ins Treatise on Rites, Hsiin Tzu says: The rites are careful about the treatment of man's life and death. Life is the beginning of man, death is his end. If the beginning and end of man are both well treated, the Way of Humanity is complete....If we render adequate service to our parents when they are living hul not when they are dead, that means that we respect our parents when they have knowledge, but neglect them when they do not. One's death means that one is gone forever. That is the last chance for a subject to serve his sovereign, and a son his parents....The mourning rites serve to decorate the dead by the living, to send off the dead as if they were still living, and to render the same service to the dead as that to the living, a service uniform from the beginning to the end....Therefore the function of the mourning riles is to make clear the meaning of life and death, to send off the dead with sorrow and respect, and thus to complete the end of man." (Ch. 19.)
