Quotation
Last reviewed:
“Human nature is bad; what is good in people is a matter of deliberate effort.”
Xunzi · Confucianism · Ancient · c. 3rd century BCE
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that raw impulse seeks profit and the senses, and falls into conflict, so goodness is deliberate effort, teachers, and ritual rather than a sprout you only need to water. A competing reading softens 'bad' toward 'disordered' or 'ugly', and stresses that he remains Confucian: artifice is how we become human, not a rejection of sagehood. The sentence is the thesis of chapter 23, 'Human Nature Is Bad'. Wei, the key word, means conscious activity, not a sneer.
Did Xunzi really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. The chapter title and thesis are Xunzi's. English translations vary between 'bad', 'ugly', and 'detestable' for e. 'Deliberate effort' renders wei, conscious activity and artifice.
Where it comes from
Xunzi, chapter 23, 'Human Nature Is Bad'
Approximate date: c. 3rd century BCE.
How to use it
Do not wait to feel like a patient colleague before you build the practice, because on his view the practice is what makes the goodness. Design the bit you can design: the pause before the reply, the rota that does not rely on heroics, the teacher you actually listen to. Feeling will not arrive first, and the design is not a consolation prize.
A mindset reading
Calling nature bad is not hating human beings. It is refusing the hope that virtue sprouts if we only stop interfering. The habit is to look for the deliberate effort, the wei, instead of waiting for a natural impulse to turn out well.
Understand the philosophy
Xunzi is answering Mencius on the sprouts of goodness. Xing, nature, is what is so without study, and the word translated 'bad' is his name for the disorder of untutored desire. Goodness is wei, deliberate effort and artifice, through ritual and standards. He does not abandon Confucius: he relocates sagehood as an achievement against the grain, not a growth from a seed already pointed the right way.
- ethics
- self
- change
FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that raw impulse seeks profit and the senses, and falls into conflict, so goodness is deliberate effort, teachers, and ritual rather than a sprout you only need to water. A competing reading softens 'bad' toward 'disordered' or 'ugly', and stresses that he remains Confucian: artifice is how we become human, not a rejection of sagehood. The sentence is the thesis of chapter 23, 'Human Nature Is Bad'. Wei, the key word, means conscious activity, not a sneer.
Did Xunzi really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. The chapter title and thesis are Xunzi's. English translations vary between 'bad', 'ugly', and 'detestable' for e. 'Deliberate effort' renders wei, conscious activity and artifice.
Which work is it in?
Xunzi, chapter 23, 'Human Nature Is Bad' Approximate date: c. 3rd century BCE.