ABSTRACT

Hsün-tzu built a synthesized and more realistic foundation for Confucian ideology that was influential throughout China during the Han Dynasty.

Early Life

Although Hsün-tzu is undoubtedly a great figure in Chinese philosophy, the basic facts of his life are still controversial among scholars. According to most Chinese scholars, he was born in the northern state of Chao around 313 B.C., and the period of his activities as a philosopher and politician covers sixty years, from 298 to 238. The most reliable sources about his life are his own writings, published posthumously, and Ssu-ma Ch’ien’s Shih chi (c. 90 B.C.). Yet almost no information about his early life, his education, or even his family background can be found in these early sources, which provide an account of his life beginning at the age of fifty, when he first visited the state of Ch’i and joined a distinguished group of scholars from various philosophical schools at the Chi-hsia Academy. This lack of information about his early life prompts some modern scholars to doubt the accuracy of the Shih chi and suggest that Hsün-tzu first visited the Chi-hsia Academy at the age of fifteen, not fifty. These scholars contend that either Hsün-tzu’s age was erroneously recorded in the first place or the Shih chi text was corrupted.