The Internal Conversion and External Expansion of the Spirit of the Exemplary Person: The Exemplary Person's View of Zengzi and Its Comparison with Mencius and Xunzi

In this paper, the author analyzes Zengzi's view of the exemplary person (Chun Tzu) from the perspective of the internal conversion and external expansion of the spirit of the exemplary person, and compares it with that of Mencius and Xunzi.. Confucianism considers the spirit of the exemplary person to be the highest ideal. The exemplary person must look back on himself in terms of moral discipline and continuously keep facing inside continuously. But since the spirit of the exemplary person is aimed at saving the world, it must be extended outwardly. Most of the history of interpretation on the spirit of the exemplary person in pre-Qin Confucian is in the circle of internal conversion and external expansion. Zengzi paid more attention to the internal conversion of introspective self-cultivation, and Mencius deepened and enriched Zengzi's view of the exemplary person from the perspective of the theory of original goodness of human nature. Xunzi's view of the exemplary person is biased in the direction of external expansion. Zengzi's view of the exemplary person has a strong reflection on seeking inward, while Xunzi focuses on the accumulation of external experience and reasonable knowledge. From Xunzi's view of the exemplary person, we can find the external expansion side of the exemplary person's spirit.