Traditionally, the theory of the relationship between Heaven and Man developed from Confucianism and Mencius’ theory, emphasizes “the Unity of Heaven and Man”, based on moral mind-nature theory. It combines with the “Heaven” and “Man”, deal-ing with the harmony between both. Mencius advocated human beings possess four human natures, including benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom. These natures are not developed from the external environment; instead, humans keep in-trinsic natures and cultivate the qualities to follow the rules of God. Through main-taining one’s integrity, developing kindness, and having sincere self-reflection, one can reach spiritual realm of the unity of Heaven and Man. In line with the social trend, Xun Zi proposed “the Distinctiveness of Heaven and Man“, which focused on under-standing the different roles of heaven and man and adapting the law of heaven. The “Distinctiveness” serves as the precondition for the “Unity.” The so-called “Distinc-tiveness” implies that humans should follow the rules of nature and live in harmony with the mother earth in order to achieve the “Unity.” In terms of the theories of Hu-man Nature, Xun Zi believes that human nature is evil, and therefore to shape one’s nature, morality and the force of law helps to transform and develop human’s kind-ness. As to how to transform human’s nature and cultivate kindness, one should re-ceive the education of teachers and law and moral guidance. Besides, relying on en-vironmental factors, one should be nurtured to form habits, to be single-minded, per-severant, and to maintain inner peace with honesty. One must be open, calm, and at-tentive to acquire knowledge without any interference from outside world, and by putting it into practice, human nature accomplishes the goal of benevolence, right-eousness, propriety, and wisdom; therefore, it ensures justice and peace in the human world.
Through analyzing thirty-two texts from Xun Zi, this current study aims to inves-tigate the rationale behind Xun Zi’s theory of “the Distinctiveness and Unity of Heaven and Man” and to clarify the difference related to Confucius’ and Mencius’ theories. By organizing the philosophical theory of “the Distinctiveness and Unity of Heaven and Man”, this study further reveals how Xun Zi’s academic theory helps to innovate and contributes to individuals, society, and the country. The researcher hopes this dissertation not only helps to conduct research on Chinese philosophical theories but motivates individuals, economic, social, and political strategy making in the country.