Mencius And Xunzi

For centuries, mankind has struggled with the question, "Are we good by nature?" Do we do good deeds only out of selfish desires, or is there a real shred of decency somewhere in our being? Even today, lawyers argue whether a killer's motives for committing atrocious crimes stem from the fact that he has a naturally incompetent tendency, or if outside influences, such as a difficult childhood, turned a naturally innocent person into a murderer. The Chinese philosophers, Mencius and Xunzi, explored this difficulty in their philosophies. While both considered themselves disciples of the philosopher, Confucius, their perspective on humans were different. Mencius had an optimistic view of humans, while Xunzi saw humans as creatures in need of reform. Although today's society will agree with much of Mencius' philosophy, Xunzi has a more accurate view of the modern societal thought.

It is important to note that Mencius and Xunzi acknowledge that humans have both bad or selfish emotions and good emotions. This internal struggle to retain the good emotions and purge the selfish emotions is influenced by the world, which also has good and bad emotions, and by rituals, which must be performed in order to achieve goodness. With the exception of the rituals, which is somewhat archaic in today's society, I agree with this philosophy. Most people believe there is a kind of cosmic balance for our lives, in which all our good emotions are weighed against our selfish emotions, and by accepting good influences and by doing good deeds for society, a modern "ritual", we can tip the balance of our life in a way that the good outweighs the bad. In the Christian belief, which I follow and adhere to, the selfish emotions that can plague our lives are called sin. Sin is dangerous in that if we do not live up to God's standards, we spend our afterlife in the eternal judgment of hell. Nevertheless, society is, and has been, concerned with being good, rather than bad people.

As followers of Confucius, Xunzi and Mencius probably agreed on another aspect of human nature: that the end of man was to become humane. Humaneness, Confucius described, was benevolence and love to people. It included qualities such as respect, liberality, trustworthiness, earnestness, loyalty, reverence, courtesy, and kindness. Both probably supported the philosophy of filial piety, not only to become more humane, but to bring honor in the afterlife. This philosophy of seeking to show humaneness to all people is respectable still in today's society. No matter how we argue that our nature originally was, we all want to be remembered as good people who showed love and kindness to other people. It could be said that both Xunzi and Mencius believed in moral perfectibility. However, the remainders of Xunzi and Mencius' philosophies on human nature contrast with each other.

The foundation of Mencius' theory on human nature is that "everyone has a heart-mind (xin) which feels for others." He explains this concept with the analogy of a people who see a child fall into a well-these people naturally feel sympathy for the child without the thought of selfish gain or denial. The heart-mind, Mencius explains, consists of four basic qualities, which when developed and cultivated, can influence the world. These qualities are sympathy or compassion, shame, respect of deference, and judgment or right and wrong. Mencius describes the good human nature as flowing water that always tends to flow downwards, and never upwards. It is because of nature that we tend towards goodness, Mencius argues. While these are qualities that any person should value, I find that one aspect of this natural development to becoming good is absent or somewhat lacking, action. In his well analogy, Mencius describes feelings of sympathy, shock, and selflessness, but says nothing on acting on these emotional responses. It seems to be only the feeling that matters. While it might make the people feel better inside that they express feelings of sorrow rather than selfishness, Mencius' story does not end, and the child is still stuck at the bottom of the well because nothing has been done! Society today values actions and good deeds more highly than just kind words. Kind words may make one seem like a good person, but that goodness only becomes proof as a result of an accompanying good deed.

Mencius believes that the natural development of morality comes from cultivation. He repeatedly compares moral development to the cultivation or growth of a sprout. Education in morals comes from self-discovery, not being told by someone. While this is true in society with the philosophy of learning from one's own mistakes, most people agree if mistakes should not be made to learn if they do not need to be made. For example, if a person did not know about the pain of getting shot by a bullet, it would be dangerous to let him learn through self-discovery and allow himself to be shot by a bullet. Rather, he should learn by example from others who have been shot. Likewise, young infants cannot understand right from wrong. Much of their learning must come from obeying the parents.

Xunzi, on the other hand, believes that man is morally ignorant, and because he does not know proper morals, his natural tendencies are selfish and lead to conflict. He gives an example that when one is hungry, his natural is to eat without thinking of other people first. It is only because of artificial social convention that he thinks about other people eating before him. Because these tendencies are undesirable, Xunzi believes that they must be transformed rather than developed. He compares moral development to straightening a board or sharpening