Xunzi

Also known as Xun Kuang · Sun Qing · Xun Qing

Xunzi, personal name Kuang, was honored in his time as Xun Qing and in Han times also called Sun Qing, by one account to avoid Emperor Xuan's name; he came from the state of Zhao. His biography in the *Records of the Grand Historian* (*Shiji*) says he first came to Qi to study at fifty, became the most senior teacher among the Jixia scholars under King Xiang and served three times as libationer. Slandered in Qi, he moved to Chu, where Lord Chunshen made him magistrate of Lanling; after Chunshen's death he lost the post, stayed on writing at Lanling and was buried there. His teaching put ritual and law first: the chapter 'Human Nature Is Bad' holds that goodness is the product of deliberate effort, and 'Discourse on Heaven' urges people to master Heaven's mandate and use it. Han Fei and Li Si both studied under him. Liu Xiang of the Western Han edited his writings into thirty-two chapters, and the Tang commentator Yang Liang renamed the book *Xunzi*.