Xunzi, the last great classical master, answered Mencius directly: human nature is bad, and goodness is the product of conscious activity, of ritual training imposed as a carpenter's square corrects warped wood. His essays are the most systematic of the early school, and his students included Han Fei and Li Si, who carried his realism into the Legalist state that unified China against his teaching.
Tagged: Classical Confucianism Confucianism
The Event
- Date
- c. 310-235 BCE (exact)
- Era
- The Classical Age; Standard periodization of Confucian history
- Location
- The Jixia academy, Qi; today Shandong, China
- Traditions
- Confucianism
- Streams
- Classical Confucianism
- Key figures
- Xunzi, Han Fei, Li Si
- Key texts
- Xunzi
Primary Sources
- The Analects of Confucius.
Secondary Sources
- Ivanhoe, Philip J., and Bryan W. Van Norden, eds. Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy. 2nd ed., Hackett, 2005.
- Yao, Xinzhong. An Introduction to Confucianism. Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Provenance: HIST-0703; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-27.
Related on This Site
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- Confucius History Event
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- Han imperial academy established History Event
- Mencius History Event
- Qin unification; book burning History Event
- Confucianism World View