Mencius put forward that human nature is good, and on this basis, he systematized Confucius' "benevolence" into benevolence. Xunzi inherited and developed Confucius' "courtesy" on the basis of evil human nature. They laid a solid foundation for Confucian political philosophy and expounded Confucian ethical and political views from both positive and negative aspects. First, the inherent logic of Mencius' theory of good nature Mencius first proposed that man, as a unique class in the world, has its own internal rules that distinguish him from other things. This inherent stipulation is reflected in morality, that is, people are born with "good knowledge and good ability", and "those who have the ability but have no knowledge have good ability; Those who are not worried have a conscience. "This moral instinct comes from people's hearts, namely sympathy, shame, obedience and right and wrong. These "four hearts" constitute the essence of human goodness. These good qualities of human nature are embodied in the four virtues of benevolence, righteousness, courtesy and wisdom in reality. " Compassion is the purpose of benevolence; The heart of shame and evil, the end of righteousness; The words of the heart are the end of the ceremony; The heart of right and wrong is also the end of wisdom. "The' end' here is the potential of the four virtues, that is, the possibility. Whether everyone can truly possess the four virtues depends on whether an individual can give full play to the inherent goodness in his human nature, that is, the "four hearts", which needs to be realized through his long-term moral consciousness. Therefore, Mencius emphasized that "if it is true, it can be good, and this is the so-called good. "The husband is not good, and it is not a crime of talent." "Benevolence, righteousness, courtesy and wisdom did not come from the outside, but from myself. I am full of it." It can be seen that Mencius believes that human nature is inherently good, and whether this innate goodness can really be transformed into human nature with four virtues is related to the individual's acquired moral consciousness and the degree of efforts to eliminate external stimuli and desires. As the saying goes, "adults are raised, and small people are villains." The "big" here is the innate four hearts of human beings; "Tiny" is an animal-like sensory desire. This is also the reason why individuals have differences in acquired morality and gentlemen and villains. In Mencius' theory of goodness of nature, human innate nature and acquired moral nature can communicate, but they are not absolute, but there is a certain tension, which requires human innate subjective moral consciousness to communicate. This laid the foundation for Mencius to extend human moral differences and benevolent policies. Second, the memory logic of Xunzi's theory of evil nature Xunzi believes that human beings have inherent rules as classes. "Those who are born are also called nature." From the content, this kind of human nature is a collection of "feelings", which is manifested as "desire" externally, including sensory desire and power desire. "Today's human nature, hungry and hungry, cold and warm, tired and want to rest, this person is also emotional." "The husband is the son of heaven, rich in the world, called the sage, and he also manages people. It is human feelings and desires. " These human desires are endless. If this free development of human nature is left unchecked, it will lead to social unrest and moral decay. Xunzi described it as "the nature of modern people, born with good interests, obedient, so they fought for life and died;" Born with disease and evil, follow it, so thieves are born with loyalty to death; It is appropriate to be born with a desire for eyes and ears and a good sense of sound, so fornication is born with courtesy and righteousness. But from the perspective of human nature, people's feelings will be divorced from competition, suitable for committing chaos and returning to violence. "It can be seen that the laissez-faire development of human nature is the root of all social chaos. In this sense, Xunzi regards human nature as evil. The essence of human beings is to live a good moral group life according to the standards of propriety and righteousness. Xunzi discussed human nature from the difference between human and animals. First of all, people can "follow the crowd" and animals can't "follow the crowd". They can integrate the strength and wisdom of all people into an overall advantage. " Harmony is one, one is stronger, more powerful, stronger than things. "Secondly, people form groups according to the principle of" division "."People cannot live without groups. Groups without points will lead to struggle, struggle will lead to chaos, and chaos will lead to poverty. Therefore, people who don't score will do great harm to people. The basic standard of "dividing" is ceremony, which plays two fundamental positive roles in the process of people forming groups, namely "dividing things to keep fit" and "separating". The former can "make desire not be poor in things, things do not yield to desire, and the two are at loggerheads"; The latter is manifested in the hierarchy of material possession and social behavior. In this way, living a moral group life according to the standard of etiquette is the essential requirement of human beings. In Xunzi's view, human nature and human nature are contradictory and relatively opposite. In order to realize human nature, we must rely on external authority to correct and transform people's innate malignancy, that is, "turning nature into falsehood", which paved the way for Xunzi to extend the idea of absolute monarchy and rule by courtesy. Source: Modern Communication