Sages and moral development in Xunzi

Abstract

My thesis follows the above trend of contemporary Xunzian studies by interpreting, analyzing, and reconstructing the texts of Xunzi through an approach inspired by analytic philosophy. In particular, the thesis focuses on Xunzi’s philosophical contributions in his distinctive theory of xing, wei, and moral development. The thesis aims to give a comprehensive picture of the role of the sage and sage king, which are important concepts in Ruist philosophy, in Xunzi. Based on the key concepts of sage and sage king, I aim to investigate three important topics of Xunzi’s philosophy: the theory of xing and wei, the justification for ritual propriety and appropriateness, and the theory of moral development. The work's central thesis is that, for Xunzi, sages and sage kings have the same bad xing as common people do. Still, they have a distinctive talent for understanding Dao which belongs to their wei, activity, or activity endeavor. This distinctive talent makes them capable of establishing Ruist norms, namely ritual propriety and appropriateness. Furthermore, this talent also makes them play a significant role in people’s moral development. I believe that we can better understand Xunzi’s theory of xing and wei in Xunzi with the concept of the sage and sage king.