Artifice and Virtue in the Xunzi Kurtis Hagen Xunzi was chronologically the third of the three great Confucian thinkers of China's classical period, after Confucius and Mencius. Having produced the most comprehensive philosophical system of that period, he occupies a place in the development of Chinese philosophy comparable to that of Ar- istotle in the Western philosophical tradition. This essay reveals how Xunzi's understanding of virtue and moral development dovetailed with his positions on ritual propriety, the attunement of names, the relation between li ~ (patterns) and lei ~ (categories), and his view of da0 ~ (the way) in general. I have argued for a "constructivist" understanding of each of these aspects of Xunzi's philosophy in some detail elsewhere (see Hagen 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003), and so here I will just briefly review a few key points before addressing their relation to moral development. I. An Overview of Constructivism A constmctivist assumes that the patterns and categories that inform his or her perceptions of the world are, in part, contingent products of an al- ways-ongoing cultural tradition. As the work of history is never complete, cultural constructs must always be intelligently managed. A Confucian con- structivist is, as a manager, also an artisan. In Xunzi's words, "The heart-mind is the craftsperson and steward of the way" (~t~,ig~2.I~t~. 82/22/40; K: 22.3f; W 147). 1 " Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Research Fellow, Nihon University, College of Humanities and Sciences, 3-25-40 Sakurajyosui, Satagaya-ku, Tokyo 156-8550, Japan. E-mail: kurtishagen@yahoo.com. Dao: A JournalofComparative Philosophy December 2003, Vol. III, No.l, pp. 85-107. 9 2003 by Global Scholarly Publications. I Translations (including those from Japanese sources) are my own, unless otherwise indi- cated. For passages from the Xun~i, I provide references to A Concordance to the Hsiin TZu,