英文摘要
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The excavation of the bamboo slips with the Wuxing (Five Virtues) manuscript on it gives rise to reassessments of Xunzi's refutation against Zisi and Mencius.Xunzi criticizes Zisi and Mencius' theories for lacking proper logical categories, satisfactory theoretical bases and adequate explanations. Their statements are in his opinion peculiar, unreasonable, mysterious, enigmatic, laconic and esoteric. He considers that differences should not be made to introduce errors and inferences should be made from the characteristics of the category that the target belongs to. From this perspective, Zisi and Mencius are feeble opponents against the schools of heterodox learning and are unqualified transmitters of ancient kings' teachings. Beginning by examining the Confucianist self-identity in Xunzi's ”Criticism of Twelve Philosophers,” this paper verifies whether Xunzi's refutation is an objection against their concept of moral capacity or against their discourse on moral capacity. Zisi and Mencius’s methodology is compared with that of Xunzi, which exalts rituals and moral principles and gives less importance to the Odes and Documents. Also scrutinized is Xunzi’s intention in his remarks. With the above analysis, the author demarcates Xunzi’s notion of the orthodox transmission, his discourse on moral capacity, and the meaning of his refutation as a unique genre.
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