The Study On Xun Zi’s Social Thoughts And Origins Of Merging Of Confucianism And Law

Xun Zi,a great ideologist in China, epitomized the thoughts of various schools in the Pre-Qin period. During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, facing up to the time challenge that is the destruction of rite system, and the social and historical condition that is chaos and disorder,Xun Zi put forward his social thoughts in order to reconstruct the social order. Therefore, Xun Zi’s social thoughts are established along the main line of social order as a whole. In the viewpoint of Xun Zi, good social order means "the harmony of communities" and "the unity of world". The human nature theory and the socialization theory contained in the thought of "exchanging the evil human nature to kind human nature", the social organization theory contained in the thought of "distinction between individualism and collectivism",and the social control theory contained in the thought of "prospering etiquettes and respecting laws" are the essential components of Xun Zi’s social thoughts. They are all organically integrated according to the causal relation and logic relation, based on the objective of social order reconstruction.Prospering etiquettes and respecting laws,together with the combination of etiquettes and laws,which are the most distinctive parts and the main content of Xun Zi’s social thoughts, and it is also the major reason why Xun Zi was denounced and criticized by the neo-Confucianism. In Xun Zi’s social thoughts, the main content of the merging of Confucianism and law is mainly reflected in the thought of adhering to forerunner and submitting to new emperors, respecting monarch and loving people, and the combination of etiquettes and laws. In order to respond and solve questions of reality, Confucianism has to abandon the tendency of idealism, only that can Confucianism contend against theories of other schools and make the emphasizing statecraft come true. Xun Zi carried forward the Confucian tradition, and emphasized the importance of people. So he regards that laws must depend on people to be implemented, and gentlemen are the key to governance. In other words, the gentleman ideal of Confucian ideology runs through all of his thoughts.Xun Zi’s social thoughts with the trait of the merging of Confucianism and Law exercise great influence on later generations. It also affects the practice about the merging of Confucianism and law and the tradition of etiquettes and laws after the Han Dynasty. It also may provide a new perspective and idea for realizing the localization of Sociology, by studying Xun Zi’s social thoughts,taking advantages of our cultural traditions and connecting our cultural roots.