Xunzi argued that human nature tends toward selfish desires and needs ritual training.
Xunzi was a Confucian philosopher of the late Warring States period. In his essay commonly translated as “Human Nature Is Bad,” he maintained that people are born with desires for profit, pleasure, and recognition. If these impulses are followed without guidance, conflict and disorder result.
Xunzi did not claim that people are permanently incapable of goodness. He argued that goodness is produced through conscious activity, learning, ritual, moral examples, and social institutions. In this account, education transforms raw impulses into orderly conduct.
His position contrasts with Mencius, who emphasized innate moral sprouts. Later Confucian traditions gave greater prominence to Mencius, while Xunzi’s emphasis on institutions and disciplined practice influenced debates about law, ritual, and political authority.