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Secondary sourceBook3rd century BCE; this scroll before 1796

Xunzi

Xunzi · 3rd century BCE; this scroll before 1796

A philosophical text by the Confucian thinker Xunzi that presents a sterner image of Confucius, including the story of his execution of Shaozheng Mao.

Presents a sterner, more critical image of Confucius, including an account of his execution of a rival.

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A hanging scroll of ink calligraphy in seal script, written in vertical columns on paper, with a signature and red seal stamps at the lower left. The text is a passage from the Xunzi, written by Deng Shiru.
Deng Shiru, calligraphy of a passage from the Xunzi, before 1796. Hanging scroll, ink on paper.

About this source

What it is

The Xunzi is a collection of philosophical writings attributed to Xun Kuang, a 3rd-century BCE thinker in the Confucian tradition. It covers topics such as ritual, music, government, and human nature, and was redacted into its current form in the Han dynasty before later commentary fixed the text further.

Why it matters

Xunzi built on and reinterpreted Confucius' ideas, arguing that human nature is inclined toward selfishness and must be shaped by ritual and education, unlike Mencius who argued people are naturally good. The text shows how later Confucians disagreed about Confucius' own teachings and developed them in different, sometimes harsher, directions.

Look closer

  • How does Xunzi's view of human nature compare with what you know of Confucius' own teaching?
  • Why might later Confucians disagree about what Confucius actually meant?
  • What does it mean that this text was copied, lost, and reconstructed over centuries?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Confucius on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Scan of a page from a Japanese woodblock-printed edition of the Analects (Rongo), in vertical columns of Chinese characters. The header reads 論語 and 卷二八 (volume two). The page has yellowed paper, a central fold, and a printed page number at the bottom.Book

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c. 480 BCE – 2nd century BCE

Front cover of a bound Chinese book with blue-grey patterned silk brocade of cloud scrolls. A tan label on the left bears large black brush characters reading 聖蹟圖 and a smaller 前頁, with a red seal impression below. The cover edges are worn.Book

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Pictures of the Sage's Traces

Unknown · 1758

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Records of the Grand Historian, Vol. 47: Hereditary House of Confucius

Sima Qian · c. 94 BCE

Black and white photograph of an interior hall with a carved wooden altar and incense burners on a long table, flanked by large pillars with Chinese characters on the walls and red-framed inscriptions; the view looks toward a shrine niche with ornate wooden canopy.Photograph

Primary source

Temple of Confucius, Peking (Interior)

John Thomson · 1871

Two facing pages of a classical Chinese manuscript in black ink brush calligraphy on aged, yellowed paper, written in vertical columns with some smaller annotation characters between lines. The text is a commentary on a historical chronicle, with the handwriting appearing in a regular, cursive-influenced style.Document

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Spring and Autumn Annals

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