ruler loves the people and offers them benefits before taking benefits
from them. In order to survive, a society must have at least this type of
ruler. The third type of ruler takes benefits from the people without
providing any benefits in return. This type of ruler is bound to perish.
Righteousness receives less individual consideration from Xunzi
and is often used in conjunction with propriety (e.g. in Xunzi, Books
2 and 12). When used on its own, it has various meanings depending
on the context, including a moral sense of right and wrong as opposed
to pursuing material benefits and satisfying desires (Xunzi, Book 2),
uprightness in terms of following moral and social rules and norms
(Xunzi, Book 2), and justice in terms of impartiality (Xunzi, Book 12).
Ritual propriety refers to the conscientious observation of the
rituals established and passed down from ancient sage-kings, but
Xunzi broadened the concept to the establishment and observation
of rules of proper conduct (Cua, 1979 ; Dubs, 1927 ) in accordance to
the Dao of humanity. Central to the Dao of humanity are virtues
of benevolence and righteousness. Propriety rules are wide-ranging,
elaborate, and mostly explicit for occasions ranging from court
ceremonies of tribute and sacrifices to ancestors, to rules of good
manners and details of costume and dress. Because most of these rules
are highly ritualized, propriety is known as ‘‘ritual propriety’’ in the
classical Confucian literature. We call it ‘‘conduct propriety’’ to stress
a broader definition and conscientious performance and practice.
The last one of the four virtues is wisdom, which is conceived
as knowledge that is harmonious with experience (Xunzi, Book 22).
In addition to emphasizing accumulated historical knowledge of
antiquities, Xunzi sees wisdom resulting from continuous practical
applications of rules of proper conduct and morality in emergent and
changing circumstances. Wisdom is therefore a ‘‘repository of insights
derived from the proper exercise ofi(righteousness) in exigent situ-
ations’’ (Cua, 1987 : 392), in other words, wisdom is the accumulation
and application of the three virtues of benevolence, righteousness, and
propriety.
Of the four central virtues, Xunzi gave the greatest prominence
to conduct propriety, which was also considered his major contribu-
tion to Confucianism (Cua, 1979 ). In a narrow sense, propriety as a
personality virtue represents a person’s disposition to be conscientious
and compliant with social, cultural, and moral rules. But more
broadly, propriety is a unifying virtue that is capable of integrating
60 Yan-qin Peng, Chao-chuan Chen, and Xin-hui Yang