[3] The text criticizes a wide range of other prominent early Chinese thinkers, including Laozi, Zhuangzi, Mozi, and Mencius.

The "Discussion of Ritual Propriety (禮 lĭ)" chapter gives rules of individual and social decorum.

"Human Dispositions are Detestable" (xìng è 性惡) rejects Mencius's claim that people have a natural inclination toward goodness.

He argues that people become good only through conscious efforts and social constructs, emphasizing the difference between natural endowment and cultivated potential.

In the first century AD, Liu Xiang redacted Xunzi's extant oeuvre from hundreds of loose fascicles into 32 bundles of bamboo strips.

The first commentary on the Xunzi does not appear until 818 AD, when an official named Yang Liang claimed to have corrected errors in the existing bamboo strips and transcribed them on scrolls of silk.

However, and again agreeing with Confucius, Xunzi does admit that there are types of music which can lead one into licentious behavior, but states that the gentleman knows to be wary of his environment and the sounds he hears.

And yet in his lifetime the enlightened kings had all died and there was no one to correct his errors, so that stupid men continue to study his doctrines and bring jeopardy to themselves.

For Xunzi, the mind is the ruler of the body, the emptying of which leads one closer to the Way.

His argument is similar to that of Zhuangzi, who says that the emptying of the mind will lead one to be actively spontaneous and in harmony with the way.

However, as noted below in the "Human Nature Is Bad" section, Xunzi argues for the use of ancient rites and regulations to hone the self, while Zhuangzi believes that simply emptying the mind, without absorbing such information regarding ritual and regulation, and thus falling into a state of wu-wei ("non-action" or "effortless action") is sufficient to walking the path of the Way.

Employing a technique used by philosophers before him, such as Mozi and Confucius, Xunzi argues for the rectification of names.

There are several reasons why Xunzi considered the correct and consistent naming of things was important: so a ruler could adequately command his people in accordance with the Way, without being misunderstood.

This appears to be Xunzi's most important reason: "When the ruler's accomplishments are long lasting and his undertakings are brought to completion, this is the height of a good government.

Ideally, if all people are able to accurately employ the word "sage" finding a proper teacher (the importance of this is described in the section below), for example, would be easier.

In this chapter, although without obvious reference to any particular person or school of thought, calls into question the word "desire."

In the Daodejing, Laozi argues for the renunciation of desires on the basis that they only lead to excessive and selfish races toward satiety.

Xunzi believed that all people are born with natural tendencies toward "waywardness": that is, a taste for profit and beauty and a susceptibility to jealousy and hate, all of which, if indulged in, would lead to disorder and criminality.

A proper teacher would have been trained in the teachings of the ancient sage kings who saw that human nature was inherently immoral and thus wrong.

From this realization, the sage kings developed rituals and regulations to shape people into accordance with the Way.

For example, great kings like Yao and Shun were born no different from thieves like Robber Zhi or the tyrant Jie: that is, all four possessed the same nature at birth.

[17] This attitude toward nurture over nature may appear similar to that of Mencius, but the stances of the two in this case should not be confused: while Mencius argues that people are born good but need a positive environment in order to fully prosper with the Way, Xunzi argues that it is only the environment which can save a person from immorality.