Hsun Tzu Human Nature
Hsun Tzu ( 312-235 BCE) like Mencius is well known as a champion of the Confucian Tradition. The view of Hsun and Mencius are opposite to one another. Hsun Tzu can be said to be realistic philosopher. He takes over the more practical aspect of rites and music as proper guidance of man’ conduct.
Hsun Tzu human nature is evil. His belief in the evil nature of man was influenced by the unhappy events that occurred daily around him. Man are born with the love of gain. At birth man is endowed with the desire of the ear and eye, the love of sound and colour, if he acts as they dictate he is licentious and disorder, and has no regard Li or code of correct behavior.
According to Hzun Tzu, the essential nature of human nature is bad in the sense of processing a problematical structure. Every human seeks to satisfy his desire. Man is born without any beginning of goodness. He actually possesses the beginning of evil.
Hsun Tzu also emphasized the environmental influence upon upon human nature. According to Hzun Tzu, men should be transformed by teachers and laws. In the light of this facts its is clear that man’ original nature is evil and that he becomes good only through acquired training. Hsun Tzu holds that evilness is nature product but goodness is the product of nurture.
`Hsun Tzu said that man is capable of improvement, he attributed this capacity to being endowed with intelligence at birth. It was through this intelligence that man could transform his crude nature into a mature and refined personality. Hsun Tzu maintained that man possess the beginning of evil in that he has an inherent desire for profit and pleasure.
Hsun Tzu maintained that man is a soial being. Men cannot live without some kind of social organization. So men must have a social organization. And in order to have a social organization. And in order to have a social organization, they need rules of conduct. These rules of conduct are necessary not only because men must have a social organization but also because men have desires.
