"Interpreting the Xun School" – Professor Liu Youming

Professor Liu Youming, a professor in the Department of Chinese Literature at National Chengchi University in Taiwan, advocates the "Contemporary Neo-Confucian Xun School of Contemporary Neo-Confucianism" in the fields of History of Chinese Philosophy, Confucian Philosophy, Zhu Zixue, Xueyong, and Contemporary Neo-Confucianism. Its Facebook blog "Confucian Feelings - Xunxue Pie" is often loved by students and fans by sharing stories from life.

Nowadays, scholars on both sides of the strait have taken the "Mengxue" system as the main sect and the "Xunxue" system as the secondary or even foil, which is caused by the Confucian custom of respecting "Mengxue" since the Song and Ming dynasties. However, with the changes of the times and society, today we should at least pay equal attention to XunXue.

Inspired by Mr. Feng Youlan's proposal that "'University' is the Xun Doctrine", Professor Liu believes that the "University", "Zhongyong", Dong Zhongshu's "Theory of Heavenly Induction" and "Theory of Chongyou" in the history of ancient Chinese philosophy actually have the character of Xunxue; the philosophy of Dai Zhen in the middle of the Qing Dynasty is actually the latest version of Xunxue; Han Yu in the Tang Dynasty and Dai Zhen in the Qing Dynasty are actually "Mengpi Xun Bones".

So, why is "Xunxue" misread? Professor Liu gave an example: "Human nature is inherently evil" is Xunzi's signature words, someone translated into English "human nature is evil", is it really so terrible, serious? Sometimes, some people, personal desire is very strong, is very easy to be pulled by desire, but if you follow the desire, will go to adventure, wandering, frustration, degeneration, until you can no longer return to the former peace of mind of their own time, will always see a flash of faint light in the darkness, this is the moral feelings of people, although weak, but once summoned, it will inevitably behave as one, and the pattern of people will become more and more vast. Therefore, Mencius's "human nature is evil" is not "human nature is evil", but cares about the master and slave of good and evil in human nature, depth, size, strength and weakness, to put it simply, Mencius said "weak good".

Professor Liu Youming advocates the study of Xunzi with the "hermeneutics of creation" to re-understand and interpret the philosophy of Xunzi.

Source: http://guoxue.bjrwdx.com/html/201.html