Work Classification Layer
Compare Works
Pick two or more works to set their attribute fingerprints, dimension-by-dimension passages, and shared school embodiments side by side. Especially useful for author-stage comparisons (Wittgenstein early vs late) and for setting a single tradition's foundational texts against each other.
Xunzi
Human nature is evil — but ritual, education, and the accumulated wisdom of the sage-kings can transform it into goodness
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Xunzi |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Non-Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Finite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | Flat |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Local |
| Matter · Extent | Finite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Partial |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | None |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Tradition |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Finite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Energy · Conservation | Conserved |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Irreversible |
| Information · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Personal Conservation | Non-conserved |
| Information · Granularity | Discrete |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
Xunzi
Time in Xunzi is historical and progressive — the sage-kings of the past created the ritual institutions that make civilisation possible. The temporal frame is the accumulated wisdom of generations, transmitted through education.
Space
Xunzi
The spatial frame is the Chinese political world of the Warring States — the question is how to create order in a violent, fragmented polity. Space is finite and politically structured.
Matter
Xunzi
The material conditions of human life — desire for food, sex, warmth, and honour — are the starting point of Xunzi's analysis. Matter is real, substantival, and the source of conflict when unregulated.
Observer
Xunzi
The observer is the embodied human being — driven by desire, capable of learning, and transformed by ritual and education into a gentleman (junzi). Active and responsible.
Energy
Xunzi
Human desire is the energetic force that, unregulated, produces conflict. Ritual channels this energy into productive, harmonious social life. Energy is finite and must be managed.
Information
Xunzi
The accumulated wisdom of the sage-kings — transmitted through ritual, music, and the classics — is the informational inheritance that makes civilisation possible. Names must be rectified to preserve this information.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The central tension is the relation to Mencius: if human nature is evil (Xunzi) rather than good (Mencius), what motivates the initial turn toward goodness? Xunzi's answer — the sage-kings created ritual through deliberate effort — raises the question of where the first sage-kings' goodness came from. A second tension is between Xunzi's Confucianism and the Legalism of his students: Han Feizi took Xunzi's pessimism about human nature and concluded that coercion, not education, is the proper response.