“human Nature Is Bad.”-- Xunzi / "人之性惡." -- 荀子 Explain Why You Agree or Disagree with Xunzi's Statement

Human nature refers to the distinguishing characteristics that humans have naturally and separates from the cultural influence. People may express different behaviors to the same event, resulting in different judgements on human nature. Mengzi and Xunzi, two eminent ancient Chinese Confucian thinkers, hold opposite beliefs towards human nature. Mengzi suggests that human nature is good, and each person is born of four sprouts: Compassion, Disdain for bad, Respect and the heart of Approval and Disapproval. However, Xunzi proposes that human nature is intrinsically bad, where people are self-interested and born with an evil mind. This essay argues that human nature is naturally bad, based on the reality that human are self-interested and attributed to violence intrinsically. Throughout the human history, examples have been shown that human are considering their self-interests as the primary concern, while their behavior is contributed to violence. This essay outlines the arguments for the bad nature of human by showing that human are naturally violent, born with self-interests and questioning the heart of compassion of human, as claimed by Mengzi.

Human are found to have a characteristic of violence intrinsically, which contributed to their evil nature and violent act. In the animal world, common chimpanzee, which as known as Pan Troglodytes, are discovered that aggression and violent behavior is innate to them (Wilson & Wrangham, 2003). Human may have also shared the violent behavior as more than 95% of DNA are shared by both chimpanzee and human. Moreover, human are found to have natural “warrior gene” as the monoamine oxidase A gene (MAOA) in human body is found to have strong correlation with the brutal behavior of human beings (Mcdermott, Tingley, Cowden, Frazzetto, Johnson & Gadagkar, 2009). This “warrior gene” is part of the reasons to explain why wars occur continuously and causing numerous fatalities throughout the human history. Entering the 21st century, while most of the human are restricted by well-developed law systems, the brutal behavior of human is still being unleashed in daily life. Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is a full-contact combat sport that allows competitors using both striking and grappling techniques. While MMA is considered as one of the most violent game in the world, it is welcomed by thousands of fans and have been named as one the most fast-growing sports (Mayeda, 2008). People are resorted to using legal ways such as participating in violent sports to unleash their natural violent behavior in mind. The above examples show that violent behavior is intrinsically born together with human and are contributed to human’s bad nature.

Apart from being violent, human are born with infinite self-interests, and most of their practices are to satisfy their desires and wants, which contribute to their bad nature. The failure of Marxism in China has proved the self-interested mind of human, in which most of the citizens passed the buck in working for the country, resulting in disastrous famine and economic recession for almost 10 years. Marxism promotes a classless society where people work and pay off according to their needs (Miliband, 2006). Between 1950s and 1960s, the Chinese Government launched the Great Leap Forward Campaign, which people were guaranteed to have three meals every day, and they were only requested to transfer their crops to District Governments. With severe corruption among the officials and incentive for people, most of them refused to work and exaggerated the number of crops transferred. This resulted in The Great Famine in China and millions of people died from hunger. These horrible years in China have proved that communism could only be carried out in utopia, as people always make decisions based on their self-interest, a fondness for profit. People even violate the moral standards in order to meet their satisfaction, telling lies on the number of crops transferred is an obvious example. People’s act under the communist society has shown the existence of realism and individualism in their evil-minded human nature, and they are placed on the top priorities for consideration while making decisions.

Some people may argue that the majority of human beings are intrinsically good, as claimed by Mengzi where people have the heart of compassion when seeing a child falling into a well. Furthermore, this is similar to what Mengzi replies to the question ‘Why then are people bad?’: “Those who follow that part of themselves which is great [the heart] are great; those who follow that part which is little [external things] are petty.” (Nelson, 2015). However, in reality, cases which show people’s compassion are minor to the entire behavior of people. The video ‘Animal Farming’ and ‘Foie Gras and Cruelty’ have showed the background process