Xunzi criticized hundred schools of thought at that time, including Zi You, Xia Zi, Zhang Zi, Zi Si and Mencius. At the same time, he critically absorbed various theories, especially legalist thoughts, so he was known as a thinker in the pre-Qin period. Among his students, Li Si and Han Fei are both famous legalists, and Fu and Zhang Cang are both famous Confucianism. Xunzi School and Meng Si School are the two most influential schools in pre-Qin Confucianism.
Xunzi has 32 volumes, most of which were written by Xunzi himself, and some were written by his disciples later.
Second, about the role of education.
On the issue of human nature, Xunzi put forward the theory of evil nature and criticized Mencius' theory of good nature. He wrote the article "On Evil Nature", arguing that human nature is good and evil, and there is no innate moral quality such as benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom. If left unchecked, it will inevitably lead to social chaos, thus denying the innate moral theory. So, where does human kindness come from? Xunzi believes that the reason why people can be good depends on the efforts made the day after tomorrow. He said: "Human nature is evil, and goodness is also false." Pseudo refers to man-made, which generally refers to the natural change caused by all man-made efforts the day after tomorrow.
He believes that the role of education lies in "transformation and forgery". Human nature is evil, and no one's moral concept is born with it, but the result of "vanity accumulates over a long period", and its process is from "sex" to "vanity" to "moving for a long time without going against its original meaning", and finally breaking away from malignancy completely and never looking back.