Abstract

Confucius, Mencius and Xunzi had different views of good government. Due to their different understandings of good government, Confucius, Mencius and Xunzi formulated their different approaches to achieving a good government. Confucius argued for li and allowed some room for fa in achieving a good government. However, since Mencius’ view is that a good government results from the moral cultivation of the ruler, ministers and people and moral persuasion, he neglected li as the approach to achieve a good government. In this case, Xunzi developed Confucius’ teachings of li and fa and not only regarded li as necessary for achieving a good government, but also, beyond Confucius, regarded fa as an indispensable way in cultivating the people to be moral.