Includes bibliographical references and index.

Print version record.

Acknowledgments; Introduction; Chapter 1. Xing and Native Conditions; Xunzi's definitions of xing; "People's xing is bad"; Natural desires and moral neutrality; Goodness and human agency; Chapter 2. Wei and Human Agency; Definitions of wei; From xing to wei; Human agency: Actions and happenings; Xunzi's worldview; Chapter 3. Xing, Wei, and the Origin of Ritual Propriety; Creation of ritual propriety from wei; People's xing at the two stages of wei; Ritual propriety and the satisfaction of desires; The heart-mind's approval and second-order evaluation.

Desires and their form of expressionChapter 4. Ritual Propriety and the Good Life; The self and the good; The petty man and the noble man; Understanding the Way; Community and the self; Ritual propriety as self-interpretation; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

"Self-realization through Confucian Learning reconstructs Confucian thinker Xunzi's moral philosophy in response to the modern focus on self-realization. Xunzi (born around 310 BCE) claims that human xing ("nature" or "native conditions") is without an ethical framework and has a tendency to dominate, leading to bad judgments and bad behavior. Confucian ritual propriety (li) is needed to transform these human native conditions. Through li, people become self-directing: in control of feelings and desires and in command of their own lives."--Page 4 of cover.