摘要：作为先秦最后一位儒学大师，荀子的思想有划时代的意义，对后世有着深远的影响。加之圣人观念在中国传统文化当中的地位十分重要，是中国士人所企慕之终极理想之所在，故本文从荀子之圣人观处着手，统筹荀子各个部分的思想，分析其理论与圣人观念的内在联系与逻辑，试图找回荀子的儒家身份，正视荀子在中国思想史上的地位。同时，在当今多元化的立场上来解读荀子，重估其思想的当代价值。

论文共分七个部分。《引言》部分结合春秋战国时期的社会历史背景，分析荀子“圣人观”产生的背景以及“圣人”作为一种符号在其各部分思想中的贯穿作用。

第一章《圣人观的渊源与背景》分为三个部分，第一部分从文字学的角度对“圣”字进行了梳理与研究。第二部分主要考察“圣”字与“圣人”一词在经典中的使用情况，力所能及的将荀子以前圣人观念的源头、发展以及演变梳理清楚，给之后荀子“圣人观念”的研究做好基础的工作。第三部分分别从荀子的生平，他所处的历史背景以及当时的学术背景三个方面，来讨论荀子思想所产生的原因，以及当时社会政治背景和思想文化背景之间的思想关联。

第二章《荀子之天人论与圣人观》从荀子的自然之天、圣人的制天命而用之以及圣人与天的相参相通三个部分来探讨圣人与天的关系。荀子的天人论是自然的，在打破了前人对于“天”宗教化的基础之上，圣人才有发挥的空间与余地，因此天人论是荀子圣人观的重要依据。客观的认识了天与人的关系，荀子从圣人的修养境界言“通于神明，参于天地”，在积学与修养的过程中既保存了人的自我又通过积学而反作用于天，反观天之道，使人道与天道相互统一，从而达成“天人合一”之境界，将圣人与天的关系融洽于他的思想当中。

第三章《荀子之人性论与圣人观》分别从“圣人与人同者性也”和“圣人与人异者伪也”，来对荀子的“性”与“伪”的概念进行分析。荀子强调人性恶，是为了提倡人们要重视“伪”的化性作用。荀子“性恶—善伪”的人性论是作为一个整体而存在的，意义就在于将圣人与普通人一视同仁，强调圣人并非是天生而来的，而是通过后天学习和积累的结果。荀子所要强调的是平常人充分的、全面的积累善，积善成德最终也可以成为圣人，是一种更为重视人主观能动性的价值倡导。

第四章《荀子之历史论与圣人观》分为三个部分。第一部分结合荀子的宇宙观、对于时间的认识以及天人论，来探讨他的人文历史观。在荀子看来，人类历史的发展是由人自己发挥主观能动性的作用，是人文的而非宗教的。第二部分通过荀子对历史总结所得的经验和规律，能够体现他的变易历史观。历史在不断地演进,王朝不断地更替，因此荀子非常注重如何能在变易的历史中找到稳定不变的规律，因此第三部分是荀子厚今的历史观。荀子提倡“法后王”，以能够带来善政与治世为原则，以近推远，借助后王之道来实现对先王之道的把握。

第五章《荀子的圣人与礼法》从礼之起源说起，荀子“性恶论”实际上是礼产生的动因，圣人制作礼义是为了“养人之欲，给人之求”，停止因为人性之恶而产生的种种祸乱与争夺，而“明分使群”则是进一步巩固礼义所带来的安定。荀子的“圣人制礼说”是从人类发展的客观规律处总结而来，包含了圣人对于客观世界与历史的反思与改进。荀子从人心与历史处着眼，旨在使礼义具有合法性，得到认可与实施，所以他提倡“隆礼重法”。荀子礼法并举，援法入礼，给儒家思想以“礼”、“仁”为主的传统观念赋予新的时代意义。他削弱客观世界对于人世的主宰力量，积极地给礼法寻找合理性的根源。圣人制定礼义，法律又以礼义为根据，因此人的主体性力量一直是荀子思想中重要的主题。

第六章《荀子的圣人与修养》从儒家对修养工夫的关照说起，从“虚壹而静”、“养心以诚”和“积善成德”三个层面，来对荀子的圣人修养工夫论进行论述。通过对于荀子圣人修养工夫的分析，可以看出荀子重“外王”的同时也重视“内圣”，将《劝学》一篇置于全书之首，便可以看出荀子对于修养工夫论的重视。换言之，经由修养途径从而达到圣人境界的“内圣”议题，同样也是荀子思想所强调的。

从整体上来说，本文着眼于以“圣人观”为纽带沟通综合荀子的其他重要思想，因此本文不仅仅局限于“圣人观”。在方法论上，力求以文献资料为基础，实现材料与观点、历史与逻辑、理论与现实的统一，努力从文献中寻找理论的根据，试图将荀子的“圣人观”还原到当时的历史社会大背景之中，以揭示在圣人观的统摄下荀子思想的价值、意义及贡献。

关键词： 荀子  圣人观  天人论  人性论  礼法论  历史观

Abstract:As the last confucian master in the pre-qin period, xunzi's thoughthas an epoch-making significance and has far-reaching influence on latergenerations. in addition,the positionof the sage theory in chinese traditional culture is very important,and it isthe ultimate pursuit of chinese traditional scholars. therefore, this articlestarts from xunzi's theory of sage, co-ordinates the ideas of various parts of xunzi, and analyzes the connection and logic between his theory and view of sage.it tries to retrieve the confucian identity of xunzi, and re-examine xunzi's status in the history of chinese thought. furthermore, this article interprets xunzi from modern diversified stance and re-evaluates his contemporary value.

The paper has seven parts. the "introduction" part combines the social and historicalbackground of the spring and autumn period and the warring states period,toanalyze the background of xunzi's "sage theory" and the penetrating role of "sage" as a symbol in his various parts of thought.

The first chapter,"the origin and background of the sagetheory" is divided into three parts. the first part, "the source ofthe character of '圣'", organizes and studies the character "圣" from the angle of philology. the second part, " 'sage' in the classics" mainly examines the use of the character"圣" and the word "sage" in the classics, try to sort out the source, development and evolution of the sage theory before xunzi, and build up fundamental work for future study of xunzi's theory of sage . the third part, "background of xunzi's theory of sage ", discusses the reasons for xunzi's thought from his life experience, the historical background he was in, and the academic background at that time. it also explores the connection between the social and political background and ideological and cultural background.

The second chapter, "the view of nature and human is the basis of xunzi's sage theory", explores the relationship between the sage and the universe from three aspects - xunzi's universe of nature, sage's "realize nature，master nature and make use of nature", the mutual interaction between the sage and nature. xunzi's view of nature and human is natural. it breaks the predecessors' religiousization of "nature",which leaves the sages space to explore. therefore，the view of human and nature is an important basis for the xunzi’s theory of sage. ively cognizes the relationship between nature and human, xunzi says "tong yu shen ming, can yu tian di", from the sage's spiritual realm. by accumulating and cultivating knowledge and practice, xunzi preserved his human self as well as giving back to nature, looking back at the way of nature, making the human and nature united with each other, finally achieving the realm of "the unity of nature and human", and harmonizing the relationship between the sage and nature in his thought.

The third chapter, "the view of human nature is basis of xunzi's theory of sage" analyzes the concept of "nature" and "accumulation of learning" of xunzi from the same and the difference between sage and normal person, xunzi emphasizes human evil, in order to encourage people to pay attention to the " accumulation of learning " role in transferring the human nature. xunzi's "nature evil- accumulation of learning " theory of human nature exists as a whole. the significance lies in treating the sages and ordinary people equally, emphasizing that the sages are not born to be sages, but through learning and accumulating. what xunzi wants to emphasize is that ordinary people can fully and comprehensively accumulate goodness, which could finally lead to become a sage. it is a value advocacy that pays more attention to people's subjective initiative.

The fourth chapter, "the historical perspective of xunzi's theory of sage" has three parts. the first part combines xunzi's cosmology, understanding of time and the view of nature and human to explore his historical view. xunzi thinks the human history is driven by human's subjective initiative. it is humanities rather than religious. the second part reflects his changing historical view through his summary about history. history is constantly changing, and dynasties are replaced by other dynasties. xunzi, therefore, pays great attention to how to find the consistent rules in the changing history . so the third part is xunzi's historical view. xunzi advocates "post-law king", which could bring good governance, use the experience of this period to derivate the way to guide future, and use the rule of post-king to understand the rule of the former king.

The fifth chapter, "the construction of the view of ritual and law of xunzi's theory of sage " begins with the origin of the ritual. the "nature evil theory" of xunzi is actually why the rituals were generated. the sage makes the ritual in order to "cultivate people's desires and offer people their requests". stop all kinds of disasters and competitions caused by the evil of human nature, and "ming fen shi qun" is to further consolidate the stability brought by the rituals. xunzi's "view of sage making law" is a summary of the ive laws of human development, including the reflection and improvement of the sages on the ive world and history. from the angle of the people's will and history, xunzi aims to make the rituals legal, recognized and implemented, so he advocates "regard both ritual and law equally important." xunzi combined the ritual and the law, added 'law' into "ritual" to the traditional confucianism which centered with "ritual" and "benevolence". confucianism was given to the meaning of the new era. he weakened the ive world's dominant power for the human world and actively sought the reasonable origin of the ritual and law. the sages maked ritual and righteousness , and the law is based on ritual and righteousness. therefore, the subjective power of human beings has always been an important subject in xunzi's thought.

The sixth chapter, "sage and self-cultivation of xunzi" begins with confucian care for the cultivation of the sage. it discusses the view of self-cultivation of xunzi from three levels of "virtual and quiet", "cultivating the heart and sincerity" and " accumulate good to be morality ". through the analysis of xunzi's view of self-cultivation of the sage, we can see that xunzi valued the "outside king" and also valued the "inner sage". the article "quan xue" is placed at the head of the book, and it can be seen that xunzi valued the view of self-cultivation. in other words, the issue of "inner sage" through the cultivation path to reach the realm of sage is also valued by the thought of xunzi.

The seventh chapter, "theoretical characteristic of xunzi's theory of sage " has four parts. first part, xunzi's theory of sage is of generality - it can co-ordinate the ideas of his various parts and make his thoughts of various parts harmonious. second part, xunzi's theory of sage is comprehensive. that is, xunzi's theory of sage runs through of xunzi's political, educational (the part of "study"), and ethical thoughts, etc., all involving "sages" section. third part , xunzi's theory of sage is speculation and dialectic. each part of the theory can be unified through his sage theory. fourth part is the practicality of xunzi's theory of sage, that is:the thought "ordinary people could be a sage" of xunzi, which ordinary people need to cultivate, learn and accumulate after being born, nourish the heart with sincerity, and accumulate good to be morality. finally, the sage is the highest pursuit of self-cultivation.

All in all, this article focuses on various parts of the xunzi's thoughts, which are correlated by his "sage theory", but not limited to his "sage theory" thought. this article is based on the first-hand literature, use the literature review method, the history mutual authentication method, look for the theoretical basis based on the literature, combine history with reality, trying to restore the "sage theory" of xunzi to the its own time and reveal its values and contributions. this paper also includes a comprehensive evaluation and judgment.

Key Words:Xunzi   theory of sage   human nature   ritual and law   the view of history

导师：李中华教授