The first person in Chinese history to advocate that human nature is inherently evil was Xunzi. Xunzi, whose name was Kuang and whose courtesy name was Qing, was from Zhao during the Warring States Period. He was more than 70 years younger than Mencius. When Mencius died, Xunzi was only more than 10 years old and still a child.

Xunzi's discussion of "human nature is inherently evil" is an improvement compared to Mencius's "human nature is inherently good". It has logic, unlike Mencius who talked nonsense; it also has arguments, unlike Mencius who was messy. The obvious difference from Mencius is that he defined human nature: "The reason why life is the way it is is called Xing." That is to say: Xing is an innate, innate, primitive and simple natural attribute that does not need to be learned. natural instinct. The opposite of "sex" is "pseudo". "Fake" means artificial and acquired processing. For example, benevolence, justice, etiquette, wisdom, and trust are "fake" and are the result of artificial education. He believes: "Xing means the original material is simple; fake means the arts and sciences are prosperous. If there is no sex, there will be no fakeness, and if there is no fakeness, the nature will not be beautiful. If the sex is fake, then you will become a saint, and you will have a great contribution to the world. That’s why.” Xunzi clearly defined human nature as the natural attributes of human beings: “When hungry, you want to eat, when you’re cold, you want to be warm, when you’re tired, you want to rest, and you love benefits but hate harm. This is what humans are born with. However, this is the same thing as Yu and Jie. "And to attribute benevolence, justice, etiquette, wisdom and trust as "false" is a social attribute of human beings.

He believes that nature is evil and hypocrisy is good. How to change people from evil to good? Xunzi believes that it is necessary to "transform nature into falsehood" through acquired etiquette education: "Human nature is evil, and its nature is false. Today's human nature is born to love benefits and follow the rules, so we strive for life and refuse to give in to death. ; Born with diseases and evils, it is the right thing to do, so the traitor is born, but loyalty and benevolence are lost; he is born with the desire of the ears and eyes, and there is good voice and color, so it is the right thing to do, so the propriety, justice, culture and science are lost when he is born with promiscuity. , Compliance with others must be due to competition, and it must be combined with division and chaos to lead to violence. Therefore, it must be transformed into a teacher, and the way of etiquette must be based on resignation, and it must be in line with literature and logic, and it can be seen from this. However, it is clear that human nature is evil, and its good deeds are false. " He believed that all human beings are lustful, greedy, and hate ugliness. These are all manifestations of the evil nature of human nature. If we let it develop naturally, society will be good. It will be full of contention, cruelty, and fornication. Therefore, we must use the teachings of teachers and etiquette to make people good, but goodness is not "nature", but "hypocrisy".

Xunzi criticized Mencius's "theory of good nature": "Mencius said: 'The scholars of people are good in nature.' He said: This is not so! It is not as good as knowing human nature, but not observing human nature. It is divided into false ones. The ordinary nature is the result of heaven, which cannot be learned and cannot be done. The etiquette and righteousness are born of the saints. They can be accomplished by what they learn and cannot be done. , and what is in people is called nature; what can be learned and done is called false; this is the difference between false nature and false nature. "In Xunzi's view, Mencius's theory of good nature is different from being capable without learning. , Conscience and Liangneng who know without thinking do not understand the difference between sex and hypocrisy.

On the issue of human nature, Mencius advocates that it is inherently good, while Xunzi advocates that it is inherently evil. Regarding the method of human nature becoming good, Mencius advocated cultivating and nurturing the buds of goodness through education so that good nature can flourish; Xunzi advocated limiting the tendency of evil through education and transforming the evil in human nature into good.

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