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I wouldn't say Xunzi is authoritarian. His school, the Confucians, were explicitly opposed to ruling by force and raw power, and instead thought that a state sh

I wouldn't say Xunzi is authoritarian. His school, the Confucians, were explicitly opposed to ruling by force and raw power, and instead thought that a state should rule by creating and following proper rituals for everyone to follow. The rituals would act psychologically to instill a sense of virtue in everyone, and then you would have a harmonious state where the ruler doesn't need to do anything except wear the ritual robes and face south. They thought a state based on naked force (or one based on explicit laws) would be too unstable.

indigo945 3y ago
Indeed Confucian thought is not inherently "authoritarian" in the sense that you allude to here, although "authoritarian" is a vague word to begin with, and some of its meanings mesh quite well with Confucian thought. However, Xunzi is uncommonly anti-individualistic even by Confucian standards, and influenced the tyrannic "legalist" tradition of Chinese state theory. Besides, Xun Zi is not at all convinced that a good society can be built through Confucian "ritual" alone - which, by the way, you unwittingly caricature by painting it as some superficial thing (wear robes, face south).