荀子化性说解论

Interpreting the Doctrine of Cultivating Human Nature of Xun Zi

以对人性的二元理解为基础,荀子把确定性的情欲作为人性的代表,于是"人之性恶"的观点得以提出。情欲之化和心知之化是化性的两个内容,后者尤其重要。荀子化性说的实践方式是起伪。在此过程中,他过分夸大圣人的心知之性,把善的起源仅仅寄托于世间少有的圣人。在强调圣人制礼、以礼化性的前提下,善、恶力量对比悬殊,法治等暴力工具不得不进入化性的理论。荀子政治主张的法家色彩由此而生。

Understanding human natures in a dualistic way and considering lust as a typical evil human nature ,Xun Zi put forward the view of “human nature being evil”.According to him ,lust and cogni‐tive capability are the two natures to be cultivated ,with the latter being more important than the for‐mer .Xun Zi also believed that cultivating practice means to find out the truth and that in the process of cultivation saints were supposed to be the only origin of “goodness”and the only qualified to set up rules of rites ,which is undoubtedly an overstatement .At the same time ,because of the rareness of saints ,there was a sharp difference between the strength of goodness and evilness .Therefore laws should be employed in cultivating ,and it is because of this that we find a feature of legalist school in Xun Zi’s political ideology .