The Analects of Process:
Reflections on Mencius and Xunzi
Prompted by
Chinese College Students
Mencius asserts the innate goodness of the individual, believing that it is society's influence – its lack of a positive cultivating influence – which causes bad moral character. "He who exerts his mind to the utmost knows his nature" and "the way of learning is none other than finding the lost mind".
|
Xunzi believes that all people are born with natural tendencies toward "waywardness": that is, a taste for profit and beauty and a susceptibility to jealousy and hate, all of which, if indulged in, will lead to disorder and criminality.
|