Xunzi was one of the three Confucian Sages of the Primordial World.
Although later Confucian teachings still carried strong currents of individual thought and exerted spiritual influence over the world,
they did not have the depth of Xunzi's influence.
Xunzi's Confucian thought was the most orthodox form of Confucian thought.
It emphasized Confucius's propriety without abandoning his investigation of external things or his praise of good people.
It followed Mencius's righteousness without placing excessive emphasis on his somewhat overextended theory that human nature was inherently evil.
What needed no adjustment was the study of Mencius's principle of sacrificing one's life for righteousness.
Yet it was not a rigid hatred of evil as though it were a personal enemy.
Instead, it learned to abide by the law!
Perhaps Xunzi's teachings did not exert a particularly profound influence on Confucianism or even the Primordial World.
But while Xunzi's thought possessed a sound continuity,
its most important quality was its moderation!
After all, several hundred years had passed between the two preceding Sages and Xunzi's thought.
Confucius had lived in the early Spring and Autumn period.
Mencius had lived in the middle of the Warring States period.
Xunzi, however, had lived at the end of the Warring States period.
First of all, compared with Confucius, whose theories had not yet been fully developed in his time, Xunzi's thought
had itself been influenced far more, over those several hundred years,
by the ideas of the Hundred Schools, which had continued developing, and by the natural development of Confucianism.
It appeared somewhat more practical than Confucius's theories.
Moreover, compared with Mencius's thought, which had been particularly impetuous in certain respects because of the environment in which he had grown up,
Xunzi's thought placed greater emphasis on the need for law in governing a country, incorporating