246XUNZI
XUNZI (c. 312–230 BCE). Xunzi was a
Confucian philosopher in the late classi-
cal period. Unlike Mencius, who believed
that human nature was intrinsically good,
Xunzi argued that human nature was
basically selfish. He was the teacher of
Han Feizi and Li Si, two founders of the
anti-Confucian Legalist school that pro-
moted state power as the ultimate politi-
cal good. Unlike the Legalists, however,
Xunzi remained basically Confucian in
his belief that human beings have the
capacity for goodness and discipline their
behavior through ritual and education.
Nonetheless, Xunzi deeply influenced
Legalist philosophers, who rejected ritual
and emphasized the necessity of a coer-
cive legal system based on punishment.