Good Confucianism book (pdf) - Department of Physics

116 XunziAlways when people see ghosts, it is only at times when they are startled andexcited; their sense is confused and blinded. So they claim that what does notexist, actually does exist and what does exist, does not. And then they believethey have settled the matter. 30It is all very well for the irrational and deluded to believe these things, buta wise person does not.Xunzi also argued against a common practice of his time: physiognomy.This is the practice of telling a person ’ s character and predicting their futureby signs on a person ’ s face, lines on the hand, or the appearance of thebody. Xunzi argues that appearance tells us nothing about the inner moralqualities of a person and there is no way we can predict a person ’ s futurefrom their face.Finally, Xunzi was especially critical of the various sub - groups ofConfucians in his time. He describes some of them as ignorant Confucians,some as interested only at playing with ritual. Others, he said, believedweird things. For Mencius and his followers Xunzi reserved a specialvenom. Confucians, says Xunzi, should dress properly, have a proper teachinglineage, and agree with Xunzi.Xunzi on Confucian ThemesXunzi uses all the Confucian terms and ideas we have seen before. Xunziargues for a morality based on filial piety, humanity, sincerity, and so on,just as all Confucians do. But, for Xunzi, this morality is arbitrary and artificial.It was made up in the past as a way to control the desires and emotionsof our human nature. It is not given by Heaven, as Mencius argued.Education is crucial for Xunzi. This is how we take on board all themorality and ritual we need in order to develop our artificial second natureand become civilized people. That is why education is difficult and whystudents must have a teacher and must be obedient to that teacher. Withouteducation, we have no chance of overcoming what is natural to us.Xunzi talks about becoming a gentleman and, as we have seen othersdo, contrasts the gentleman with the small or petty man. In line with otherConfucian thinkers, Xunzi says that gentlemen must be educated, havehumanity, know ritual, and look within themselves to cultivate goodness.Like Mencius, Xunzi argues that sages, the great models of moral behavior,do not differ in any essential way from the rest of us. All of us, by establishingour artificial moral nature, are capable of becoming sages.Like all Confucians, Xunzi recognizes the importance of ritual. ForXunzi, ritual refines and directs our raw impulses. Ritual controls ourdesires and allows us to express our emotions in a balanced and sociallyacceptable way. Ritual also has the social and political function of appor-