Xun Kuang

Xunzi (Xun Kuang) was an ancient Chinese Confucian philosopher who, contrary to Mencius, argued that human nature is inherently bad and that goodness is achieved through ritual, education, and self-cultivation. His naturalistic approach to ethics was deeply influential in Chinese thought.

Xunzi's naturalism extended to a demythologised view of Heaven (tian) as a natural order rather than a moral force, and his theory of ritual (li) as the means by which society shapes otherwise wayward human nature anticipates sociological accounts of morality. Two of his students — Han Fei and Li Si — became founders of Legalism.