This essay examines the textual evidence and arguments for two rival ways of interpreting Xunzi's accounts of the origins and normative bases of ritual and the Way: a human-centered line of interpretation which maintains that the moral order constituted by the Confucian Way and its ritual tradition was the artificial creation of a group of ancient sages, and a Heaven-centered line of interpretation which maintains, in contrast, that those same sages based the Confucian Way and its ritual tradition on a cosmic moral order that they discovered already existing in the world. It argues that the weight of textual evidence best supports a version of the former view, and shows that three representative versions of the latter view do not withstand critical scrutiny.

中文翻译：

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荀子道德观的两种对立解释

本文考察了两种对立的解释荀子关于礼和道的起源和规范基础的解释的文本证据和论据：一种以人为中心的解释路线，它坚持儒家之道及其仪式传统构成的道德秩序是一群古代圣人的人为创造，以及一种以天为中心的解释路线，相比之下，这些圣人将儒家之道及其仪式传统建立在他们发现已经存在于世界上的宇宙道德秩序之上. 它认为文本证据的分量最能支持前一种观点的一个版本，并表明后一种观点的三个代表性版本经不起批判性审查。