Good Confucianism book (pdf) - Department of Physics

114 XunziHeavenIn the early Zhou dynasty and in some of Confucius ’ comments, we haveseen Heaven referred to both as a moral entity and as nature. Xunzi uses theword “ Heaven ” to mean nature: Heaven is nature and Heaven is amoral.Xunzi ’ s view of Heaven is close to the Daoists ’ view of the Dao. Heavendoes not give us a good human nature. Heaven does not care about humanbehavior at all. He says that the actions of Heaven are natural and do notrespond to the virtues of one ruler nor to the corruption of another ruler.Good fortune is the result of good government, wise planning, and moderatespending. This will make for a successful government and does notdepend on any decision by Heaven. Heaven deals with all people equally,whether they are the greatest sage - king or the worst of rulers.If you answer nature ’ s regular course with good government, you will havegood fortune; if you respond to it with bad government, you will have misfortune.If you strengthen the basic things you need to do and regulate theways you do things, nature cannot make you poor. If you plant and raisethings properly and your actions are in harmony with the seasons, thennature cannot afflict you with anything bad. If you follow the Way and actrightly, then nature cannot bring you calamities. If you do this, then floodsand droughts cannot cause famine, extremes of cold and heat cannot causeillness, and unlucky and freak events cannot cause misfortune. 26We should use the abundance nature gives and build up supplies of foodand increase the wealth of the state.Xunzi says that nature does not stop winter just because human beingsdislike the cold. 27 Nature is impartial. Our concern is to respond intelligentlyto what nature does and this will give us successful economiesand governments. So, Xunzi says, instead of singing hymns and glorifyingHeaven, we should spend our time understanding how to farm accordingto the seasons.In Xunzi ’ s biography in the Records of the Historian it says that Xunzihated evil rulers who focused on magic and prayers, believing in omensand luck. Instead of governing well, or even rationally, most rulers ofXunzi ’ s time followed superstitious advice about lucky and unlucky daysand planned according to them. They also used natural events, like stormsand comets, as signs of good or bad luck. Xunzi argued that Heaven doesnot send omens to regulate human behavior:When there are comets or trees groan, everyone in the state is terrified. Theyask what the cause of such things could be. I say, so what? When there is achange in the movements of Heaven and Earth or a change in the yin and