Xunzi (philosopher)
Sources and context

Detailed information concerning Xunzi is largely nonexistent. Yet when compared to the scarcity of knowledge for many other ancient Chinese philosophers, there is meaningful and significant extant information on the life of Xunzi. The sinologist John H. Knoblock asserts that the sources available "permit not only a reconstruction of the outlines of career but also an understanding of his intellectual development". Xunzi's writings have survived in exceptionally good condition, and while they provide biographical details, the authenticity of this information is sometimes questionable. In addition to these, the main source for Xunzi's life is Sima Qian 's Shiji (史記; Records of the Grand Historian), which includes a biography of Xunzi (SJ, 74.12–14) and mentions of him in the biographies of both Li Si (SJ, 78.15) and Lord of Chunshen (SJ, 87.1–2, 14). The Western Han dynasty historian Liu Xiang revised and expanded Sima Qian's initial biography for the preface of the first edition of Xunzi's writings. Some minor references to Xunzi also exist in Ying Shao 's paraphrase of Liu Xiang's preface, as well as brief mentions in the Han Feizi, Zhan Guo Ce and Yantie Lun.

The Warring States period (c. 475–221 BCE), an era of immense disunity and warfare, had been raging for over a hundred years by the time of Xunzi's birth in the late 4th century BCE. Yet this time also saw considerable innovations in Chinese philosophy, referred to as the Hundred Schools of Thought. The primary schools were Confucianism, Daoism, Legalism, Mohism, the School of Names, and the Yin–Yang School. Xunzi was a philosopher in the tradition of Confucianism, begun by Confucius who lived over two centuries before him.
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