The core of Xunzi's political philosophy is "promoting courtesy as law", which is considered as the key to governing the country. "Rite" has always been advocated by Confucianism. Only when Xunzi developed, its role as a means of national governance was greatly strengthened. He believes that only on the basis of "ceremony" can the society be well governed, and the ultimate goal of "ceremony" is to govern the country, so it is not difficult to understand why he does not oppose the use of punishment. When some people still violate the "law" without education, Xunzi firmly supports the use of "punishment", because only in this way can they set an example, give people a warning and achieve the purpose of maintaining a good social order. It is precisely because Xunzi's explanation of "Li" has a position that cannot be ignored, so it is necessary for us to carefully analyze the development track of Xunzi's "Li". When Xunzi promoted "ceremony" to "law", "ceremony" became operational, and operability was an important part of political ruling strategy, and rulers could conduct orderly social management according to "law". Based on Xunzi's political philosophy, this paper analyzes the relationship among Xunzi's "ceremony", "law" and "punishment"

First, the relationship between "ceremony" and "law"

First of all, Xunzi has his own unique view on the origin of "Li". Although he inherited the Confucian tradition of emphasizing "ceremony", he made a profound transformation of "ceremony".

Xunzi admired Confucius very much, but in the origin of "ceremony", Xunzi was obviously different from Confucius: "Where did the ceremony start?" Day: people are born with desires, thinking but not wanting; It is an indisputable fact to seek the boundary without measuring it; Chaos, chaos and poverty. The former king hated its chaos, so he divided the etiquette and righteousness to nurture people's desires and give them what they want, so that they could not give up their desires. The two are at loggerheads, which is also the function of courtesy. "Xunzi believes that the origin of" ceremony "is to prevent people from fighting. This perspective has a strong color of social practice, which is why we look at Xunzi's" ceremony "from the perspective of political philosophy, because Xunzi's interpretation of" ceremony "fundamentally laid the theoretical foundation of his political philosophy. Let's review Confucius' thought of "ceremony" again. Confucius did not specifically discuss the origin of "ceremony", but focused on "ceremony". This article was collected and arranged by the paper net after graduation: "The purpose of courtesy is harmony. First, Wang Zhidao is beautiful, and small is big. " As far as the social governance function of "ceremony" is concerned, Xunzi did inherit Confucius' thought, and both of them emphasized the social function of "ceremony". But the difference is that Confucius pays more attention to an internal dimension, that is, to achieve a state of social harmony through individual moral cultivation; Xunzi emphasized an external dimension of "ceremony", that is, people consciously abide by social order through the external constraints of "ceremony".

From the perspective of Xunzi's "courtesy", it is not difficult to understand why Xunzi treated Meng Si School critically. Although Xunzi and Mencius are both inheritors of Confucianism, there are great differences in the development direction of Confucius' thought. Mencius pursued human moral introspection from the perspective of "benevolence", which highlighted the development direction of Confucian introversion; Xunzi, on the other hand, emphasized the importance of external education from the perspective of "courtesy", which opened up an extroverted development direction for Confucianism. As we have said, although Confucius' "ceremony" also emphasizes external functions, it pays more attention to an internal dimension. For example, Confucius said, "If people are not kind, why should they be polite?"? People are heartless, so what are you happy about? " Only in this way can we finally turn "courtesy" into "benevolence". But this inner dimension of Confucius is only a tendency, and it is not clearly displayed. Moreover, Confucius also said that "the monarch and envoys are polite and the envoys are loyal." This refers to the external function of "ceremony", so Xunzi still regards himself as praising Confucius. But it is different in Mencius. The core of Mencius' thought lies in benevolence and righteousness, not in ceremony. Even if "ceremony" is mentioned, it is only interpreted as something inherent in human beings. It can be said that Mencius completely regards "courtesy" as something that people are born with, and only through an inner cultivation can it be achieved: "compassion is the end 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. People have four ends, but they still have four bodies. " Mencius believes that "courtesy" is a kind of resignation, which is inherent in people's hearts in the final analysis. Xunzi's explanation of "ceremony" is just the opposite of Mencius', and he pays more attention to the externality of ceremony: "People are naturally profitable and obedient, so they fight for their lives and quit; 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. Obeying people's feelings will be in line with crime and chaos because of competition. Therefore, there must be a way to learn the law, a way to be polite and righteous, and then out of words, it is in line with the arts and sciences, and it is governed by it. " Xunzi emphasized the external constraints of "rites" on people, and through the constraints of "rites", people's desires were kept within a reasonable range, avoiding the chaos of social order caused by the infinite pursuit of the satisfaction of their respective desires.

In a word, Xunzi made a directional adjustment to the explanation of "reason", which changed the internal dimension of Confucian "reason" and gave it more external dimensions. Judging from Xunzi's political philosophy, this change is of great significance. It is the development of this external orientation that makes Xunzi's "ceremony" naturally surpass "law".

Let's discuss how Xunzi developed from "ceremony" to "law". The "ceremony" mentioned by Xunzi contains the meaning of "law" in many cases. Lu Jianhua thinks that the ceremony mentioned by Xunzi contains the content of traditional etiquette and is a synthesis of traditional etiquette and law. This generalization is very accurate. Xunzi's "ceremony" does imply the traditional meanings of "ceremony" and "law", so Xunzi's "ceremony" is not completely equivalent to "law". Only by reforming the traditional reserved "ceremony" to a certain extent can we upgrade from "ceremony" to "law".

As we mentioned before, in the Confucian ideology of Confucius and Mencius, "ceremony" is more of an internal dimension, emphasizing "ceremony" as an individual's moral cultivation. As Xunzi, who highly praised Confucius' theory, it is certainly impossible to fundamentally cut off the internal dimension of "ceremony", but in the face of a more severe social situation, Xunzi needs to show "ceremony" externally to ensure that people's behavior can be more restrained. Mou Zongsan commented on Xunzi in this way: "Therefore, those who respect the Constitution are actually the objectification of benevolence and righteousness. Xunzi attached great importance to this constitution, which constituted the object, was the ultimate of ancient Japanese kings and was relatively objective. " The "courtesy constitution" mentioned by Mr. Mou here is equivalent to the "law" mentioned by Xunzi to some extent. Although "the extreme of the outer king" is slightly exaggerated, it points out the transformation of Xunzi's "ritual" to the outside world.

However, it is undeniable that Xunzi's "ceremony" still retains an internal basis, rather than a simple external binding force. For example, Xunzi said: "Therefore, learning ends with ceremony, and the husband is extremely virtuous." Xunzi still emphasizes the importance of personal good moral cultivation through study here, which is in the same strain as Confucius' thought. However, because Xunzi paid more attention to the construction of the overall social order and emphasized the external binding force of "ceremony", it was the inheritance and development of Confucian "ceremony". The change from "ceremony" to "law" reflects Xunzi's concern for social politics at that time, and puts the focus of "ceremony" on external binding force, thus naturally developing "law". This is closely related to Xunzi's salvation mentality and the social background at that time. We can't simply think that Xunzi's transformation from "ritual" to "law" is a departure from Confucianism.