Rites Versus Nature: On the Difference Between Xunzi and Zhuangzi on Motivation of Action

Both Xunzi 荀子 and Zhuangzi 莊子 conceive tian 天 (heaven) as non-purposive and use the word tian to denote natural phenomena as well as the inborn nature of myriad things, they nonetheless develop a vastly different attitude towards the installation of social institutions—Xunzi sees such institutions as essential to human flourishing, while Zhuangzi believes they cause harm to them. Through analyzing important concepts such as tian, ren 人 (humans), wei 偽 (conscious activity and transformed nature), and zhen 真 (true) in the Xunzi and the Zhuangzi, this paper aims to provide a possible explanation of such a contrasting attitude in terms of the desire-belief action theory. Under this explanation, the establishment of the rites (li 禮) advocated by Xunzi can be seen as being motivated by the “world to mind” direction of fit that is characteristic of desires, while Zhuangzi’s lack of interest in establishing social institutions can be seen as motivated by the “mind to world” direction of fits of beliefs.