Two thousand years ago, Xunzi used "green, take it from blue, and green is blue" in his famous work "Encouraging Learning"; Ice, water for it, cold in the water "to teach disciples" don't climb mountains, I don't know the height of the sky; "Don't face the deep stream, I don't know the depth. I hope my disciples can keep learning and reach a higher level.
I'm afraid it's hard for Xunzi himself to think that two thousand years later, future generations will quote the words he once created to praise him. In fact, cyan refers to the color indigo; Blue refers to several plants that can be used to make indigo dyes. Xunzi's original intention was that indigo dye was extracted from bluegrass, but its color was darker than bluegrass. Later generations generally use "shine on you is better than blue" to describe that students are better than teachers, which is similar to the meaning that the waves behind the Yangtze River push the waves before.
Xunzi studied under Confucianism in his early years, and he inherited Confucius' thought of "courtesy". And make it develop and perfect. In addition, Xunzi did not exclude a hundred schools of thought during the Warring States period, but critically absorbed the essence of a hundred schools of thought and became a master of a hundred schools of thought.
What is more striking is that Xunzi's student Han Feizi became a representative figure of Legalists in the Warring States Period, and once assisted Ying Zheng, the king of Qin, to unify the six countries. Another student of Xunzi, Li Si, also became the prime minister of Qin. After Qin Shihuang unified the world, he became the founder of the national administrative system of the Chinese Empire.
It is no wonder that in later generations, Liang Qichao commented: "Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, the study of politics originated from Xunzi." Tan sitong said: "the politics of two thousand years are all Qin politics;" I have been studying for two thousand years, and I am all studying. " Mao Zedong also thinks: "For thousands of years, Confucius acted according to Qin Shihuang in form. Qin Shihuang used Li Si, a legalist and a student of Xunzi. " It can be said that Xunzi's thought laid a theoretical foundation for the formation of China's unified feudal empire for more than two thousand years.
Xunzi's thought about "courtesy" is also the most critical part of his influence on China's political and social system thought. Xunzi put forward the opposite view to Mencius, emphasizing that human nature is evil. He believes that "people are born with desires, but they can't have desires, so they can't have nothing; It is an indisputable fact to seek the boundary without measuring it; Fighting is chaotic, and chaos is poor. "
In his view, "ceremony" is a "measuring boundary" formulated by the former king (emperors around the Zhou Dynasty) to regulate people's desires and avoid the phenomenon of "chaos". "Rites" define people's political and economic levels, which can make people get their proper places in society, thus avoiding war.
In the sense of social stability, Xunzi's "courtesy" ensured that production could proceed smoothly and social wealth could be accumulated when social productivity was extremely low at that time. It is also under the influence of this "ceremony" that the era of disputes in the Warring States period is over. All these have laid the necessary foundation for the rapid development of Chinese civilization.
Another important view of Xunzi is his view of heaven. In the pre-Qin period, people thought that the world was dominated by heaven, and people's cognition and action were limited. Early outlook on fate and superstition were very common in that period. After summing up a hundred theories, Xunzi made an objective evaluation of the relationship between heaven and man.
Xunzi believes that "heaven is always there" and "heaven and earth are combined to create everything"; The formation, development and extinction of all things in the world are governed by objective laws. He pointed out that as long as people grasp this "norm" (law) and act according to the law, they can succeed. This view has greatly enhanced people's confidence in pursuing, understanding and applying the law; It also greatly enhanced the determination of the ancients to change the backward world.
As a famous educator in ancient China, Xunzi believed that a person's moral cultivation could be improved through accumulation, and learning was a process from quantitative change to qualitative change. He advocates applying what he has learned and attaches great importance to the role of practice, emphasizing that the purpose of cognition lies in practice. Therefore, in the teaching of various subjects, teachers should practice, educate students to pay attention to practice, be consistent in knowing and doing, apply what they have learned, and make students correct their learning attitude.
Xunzi put forward that we should pay attention to cultivating students' initiative and thinking ability in teaching, and advocated that teachers should start from students' actual ability, rely on students' learning drive, and take good advice to make students think independently in a relaxed and happy atmosphere, which is consistent with the emphasis on establishing an equal, democratic and harmonious relationship between teachers and students, attaching importance to developing students' personality and developing students' non-intellectual factors in modern teaching theory. He advocates explaining some truths and things through concrete images, guiding and inspiring students to actively explore, so as to exercise their talents and inspire their wisdom; I hope that teachers will respect students' original spirit, take students' questions seriously, and grasp the appropriate opportunity to guide students. It can be seen that many of Xunzi's educational thoughts still have great guiding significance to today's educational problems.
Xunzi, as a thinker and educator who walked out of that troubled times; His thought has crossed the barrier of time and space for thousands of years, but it is still worthy of recognition and praise by future generations. Perhaps the value of his thought lies in his extraordinary vision of "shine on you is better than blue"; Perhaps his success lies in his tolerant words without losing tolerance and self-confidence.