Perversion is an idea put forward by Xunzi, a representative of Confucianism at the end of the Warring States Period. Xunzi put forward the theory that human nature is evil, so everyone needs to turn nature into falsehood and emphasize the role of acquired education and training in educating people.

What do you mean by metamorphosis and falsification?

Perversion is to change people's innate nature through acquired artificial education. "Turning nature into falsehood" comes from Xunzi's theory of evil nature: "Therefore, saints turn nature into falsehood, falsehood leads to ceremony, and ceremony leads to law." It is emphasized that acquired education is the basis of standardizing ethics and morality, and self-cultivation is the basis for subsequent etiquette and legal system construction.

Xunzi, as one of the representatives of Confucianism in the late Warring States period, developed Confucianism. But it is different from Mencius' theory of good nature. Xunzi put forward the theory of evil nature, arguing that people have no natural moral concept, and emphasized that people's change depends on acquired education and cultivation. In essence, Xunzi and Mencius reach the same goal by different routes, inheriting the Confucian thought of always attaching importance to physical and mental cultivation and external ethics.