An Inquiry into the Core of Xunzi's 'On Rites': The Origin of Rites, Textual-Structural Logic, and the Way of Elevation and Reduction

Section 2 Master Zhuangzi on Rites: The True Emotion of Life and Nature

Master Zhuangzi’s attitude toward Rites is more complex than Laozi’s. He features both sharp satire against worldly Rites and a certain affirmation of their deeper spiritual essence.

In the Zhuangzi, Ma Ti (Horse Hoof) chapter, Zhuangzi uses a vivid analogy to critique how artificial norms harm natural essence:

"The horse’s hooves can tread on frost and snow, its coat can withstand wind and cold. Grazing on grass and drinking water, standing on its hooves to walk—this is the true nature of the horse. Even if one built imperial terraces and sleeping halls for it, they would be useless. Then came Bo Le, saying, 'I am good at training horses.' He burned them, plucked their hair, carved them, branded them, tied them with reins, and confined them in stables. Twelve or thirteen out of every ten died. He starved them, thirsted them, made them race, made them trot, disciplined them, and kept them in formation. Before them were the threats of the harness, and behind them the terror of the whip. By then, more than half the horses were dead."

The true nature of the horse is to run freely on the plains, drink water, and graze—this is the horse's "true nature" (zhen xing). But Bo Le (the alleged expert) brands, clips, carves, and restrains it—and ends up harming the horse. Zhuangzi uses this to illustrate: Human true nature is free and unrestrained, but Rites and Righteousness (systems assumed to manage people well) seek to regulate and constrain humans—resulting in the injury of human nature.

This critique is sharp and powerful. If we concede that humans possess a "natural disposition" (like the horse’s "true nature"), then any external norm—including Rites—risks harming that disposition. Master Xunzi might retort: Man’s "natural disposition" is to love profit and hate harm, seeking sensory gratification; without regulation, this leads to "contention leading to chaos, and chaos leading to destitution." But Master Zhuangzi might further argue: What you see as "loving profit and hating harm" is not true human nature but a "false nature" (wei xing) distorted by society. True human nature is unified with Heaven and Earth, free and unrestrained.

This debate hinges on the fundamental question of human nature—what is man’s "true nature"$5 Is it Master Xunzi’s "loving profit and hating harm," or Master Zhuangzi’s state of freedom$6 Pre-Qin times had no final answer, and neither does the present age.

However, it is worth noting that Master Zhuangzi does not completely negate all order. In the Zhuangzi, Tian Di chapter:

"In the Great Beginning there was nothingness, and nothingness had no name. When the One arose, there was the One but it was not yet formed. That which allows things to be born is called virtue (De); that which is unformed but has boundaries yet no division is called destiny (Ming); when movement stops and things are born, the resulting physiological structure is called form (Xing); when the form preserves the spirit, each has its own inherent order; this is called nature (Xing)."

"Each has its own inherent order (ge you yi ze), this is called nature (xing)"—Every thing possesses its own "inherent order" or principle, which is its "nature." This indicates that Zhuangzi admits that things possess an inherent order—only this order is natural and internal, not artificial and external.

If we contrast this thought of Zhuangzi with Xunzi’s theory of Rites, we find a possible reconciliation: The best Rites should be those that conform to the "inherent order" of things—Rites are not forceful external constraints but the institutionalization of man’s "inherent order." Master Xunzi’s concept of "returning to the Great Unity" perhaps implicitly suggests this—when Rites reach the state of "Great Unity," the artificial institution merges with the natural order; the institution ceases to be a force against nature and becomes its manifestation.