ABSTRACT
In Xunzis book, the synthetic format and presentation of ideas reflect, like the ideas themselves, the revolutionary intellectual developments of the third century BCE. In practice, Xunzis claim that xing is evil means that following the impulses of ones xing, without reflecting on them and moderating them, will lead one to evil acts. Xunzis rituals have such an important role to play in our emotional and moral development. Xunzis discussion of Heaven presented his argument that moral self-cultivation is a matter of correctly perceiving and then applying the Way. What Xunzi called emptiness, unity and tranquillity terms self-consciously borrowed from the Daoist tradition are three nurturable faculties that we all possess from birth. For Xunzi, then, rituals are not merely received practices, nor convenient social institutions; they are practicable forms in which the sages aimed to encapsulate the fundamental patterns of the universe.
