Status Updates From Introduction to Classical C...

I’m struck by how modern Xunzi and Han Feizi sound in their analyses of human character and politics. Both were cynical, but much more nuanced and interesting than the bastardized cribs you usually find on them. Coming out of the Warring States period — centuries of endless civil wars with terrible and often incompetent tyrants — their cynicism and desire for strong social order are understandable.

This chapter reminds me that Mencius (Mengzi) was a really wonderful thinker whose lessons we would do well to consider and implement even today. The metaphors and parables by which he illustrates his ethics are excellent; his teaching independently overlaps with the best of Aristotle and Biblical wisdom tradition. More Westerners should engage with Chinese philosophy!