溫故知新 Old wisdom, today’s insight — ONGO
Is Human Nature Good or Evil?
Is the nature within me an originally good seed, or a raw impulse to be tamed?
Human nature tends to good as water flows downward (Mencius). / Human nature is bad; its goodness is the work of deliberate effort (Xunzi).
Within the same Confucian school two teachers split head-on. Mencius said that anyone who sees a child about to fall into a well runs to it without thinking — proof that four good seeds (the four sprouts) are innate. Xunzi countered: people naturally love gain and fall into strife, and goodness is the result of polishing nature through education and ritual. The question carried across East and West. Rousseau held that humans are good by nature but corrupted by society; Hobbes drew the opposite, picturing the state of nature as "a war of all against all." Whether to trust or to guard against human beings — the roots of politics and education divide at this question.
In you, choosing each day whether to trust or doubt people, this ancient debate lives on, still unresolved.
In this debate I cannot stand wholly on one side.
📝I, Too, Stand Before It
In this debate I cannot stand wholly on one side. When a stranger lifts me after I fall, Mencius seems right; when I watch my heart waver before some petty gain, Xunzi seems right. Perhaps I am a being holding a good seed and a raw impulse at once. What matters is not which theory is correct, but which side I water and grow today. Not yet fully knowing the nature of my own nature, I choose each day what to plant in that field.
✍️Your Answer
The lineage of the ancients ends here. Now it is your turn before the question. There is no right answer — only how you, today, would answer.
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