Xunzi is often deemed by modern scholars as a thinker possessing the "summarized" characteristic of the pre-Qin era. His philosophy revolves around Confucianism as its main axis, while also incorporating the philosophy of other pre-Qin philosophers. After refining and integrating these diverse ideas, Xunzi developed his own unique philosophical system. Due to the characteristic of “integration of Hundred Schools of Thought“ included in Xunzi’s philosophy, modern scholars often define his method of integrating the pre-Qin Schools of Thoughts as "critical inheritance." In Xunzi's thought, apart from Confucianism, traces of Daoism, Legalism, Mohism, and School of Names can also be observed.
Xunzi's studies on propriety, theories on Tien (Mother Nature, or way of heaven), theories on the mind, theories on evil human nature, and theories on rectifying names are highly valued by modern scholars. Among these topics, the theories on Tien and the mind are closely related to the thoughts of Laozi and Zhuangzi. Modern scholars often study the relationship between Xunzi's philosophy and Daoist thoughts by comparing key terms and philosophical systems. In the writing of Xunzi, direct criticisms of Laozi such as "emphasize effortless but neglect exertion" (emphasizing the importance of effortless and hold back, but neglecting the value of initiative and exertion) and "only effortless and no exertion, then lack of criteria for noble and lowly" (if only emphasizing effortless but ignore the value of exertion, it will hard to differentiate the class of people) can be found. This paper uses Xunzi's direct criticisms of Laozi as a bridge to study the "critical inheritance" of Xunzi's thoughts on Laozi's ideas regarding the topics of the mind, theories on Tien, and propriety.
The whole dissertation is divided into seven chapters. First exploring the objective conditions of Xunzi's study with Laozi's thoughts, then analyzing how Xunzi establishes the criteria for criticism and the meaning of "Being effortless but no exertion." Subsequently, focusing on the topics of the mind, theories on Tien, and propriety, the paper investigates how Xunzi "critically inherits" the thoughts of Laozi based on "Being effortless but no exertion." Through the exploration process mentioned above, this paper attempts to construct a method that may help discussing other academic thought in "critically inherit" of Xunzi’s philosophy, other than comparing key terms and philosophical system.