1. Translation

A person who can talk about etiquette and righteousness and practice etiquette and righteousness himself is a national treasure. People who cannot talk about etiquette and righteousness but can practice etiquette and righteousness themselves are instruments of the state. A person who can talk about etiquette and righteousness but cannot practice etiquette and righteousness himself can only be a tool of the state. People who talk well but do bad things themselves are simply the monsters of the country. Those who govern the country respect the country's treasures, care for the country's utensils, use the country's tools, and eradicate the country's evildoers.

2. Original text

If the mouth can speak and the body can act, it is a national treasure. The mouth cannot speak, but the body can act. This is a national weapon. If the mouth can speak, but the body cannot act, it is only for the use of the country. He who speaks good words but does evil things with his body is like a national monster. Those who govern a country respect its treasures, love its utensils, allow them to be used, and get rid of their demons.

3. Source

Excerpted from "Xunzi·General Introduction"

Extended information

1. Creation background

Xunzi criticized all schools of thought, but he only admired Confucius' thought as the best idea of ??governing the country. Xunzi regarded himself as the successor of Confucius, and especially inherited Confucius's "external kingship".

He also critically summarized and absorbed the theoretical propositions of various schools of thought from the standpoint of epistemology, and formed a distinctive view of nature that “understands the distinction between heaven and man” and “the origin of nature.” The moral concept of "pseudo" and the social and historical concept of "the rule of etiquette", and on this basis, the pre-Qin philosophy is summarized.

2. Appreciation of Works

Xunzi’s thoughts have comprehensive characteristics because he critically summarizes and absorbs the thoughts of various schools of thought. The political outlook, educational outlook and other aspects are unique and distinctive among Confucian schools.

Xunzi respects kingship and hegemony; he upholds etiquette and righteousness, and stresses the rule of law; while "the law precedes the king", he also advocates "the law empresses the king". Mencius created the theory of good nature and emphasized the cultivation of nature; Xunzi advocated the theory of evil nature and emphasized acquired learning. All these show that he is different from the Confucianism passed down directly. He also put forward simple materialist views such as man's determination to conquer nature, opposing fatalism, and that all things operate and change in accordance with the laws of nature. ?

There are thirty-two chapters in the book "Xunzi". Except for a few chapters, most of them were written by himself. His articles are good at reasoning, well-organized, thorough analysis, and good at drawing examples. He often uses parallelism to enhance the momentum of arguments. His language is rich in warning and has strong persuasiveness and appeal

3. Introduction to the author

Xunzi (approximately 313 BC - 238 BC), whose surname was Kuang and courtesy name Qing, was from the Huaxia ethnic group (Han nationality) and was a native of the Zhao state at the end of the Warring States Period [1-7]. A famous thinker, writer and politician, he was respectfully called "Xunqing" by people at that time.

In the Western Han Dynasty, because the two characters "Xun" and "Sun" had similar ancient pronunciation to avoid the taboo of Liu Xun, the Emperor Xuan of Han Dynasty, he was also called Sun Qing. He served as the wine-offering officer of Jixia Academy of Qi State three times, and later the magistrate of Chu Lanling (located in present-day Lanling County, Shandong Province).

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