"If the blood humor is too strong and robust, calm it with balance and harmony"
About this Quote
Xun Kuang reaches for the body to argue about the state, which is exactly the point: politics is physiology. “Blood humor” isn’t a cute metaphor so much as an early diagnostic tool. When something in us is “too strong and robust,” he’s not praising vitality; he’s warning about surplus force turning into volatility. The line is an antidote to romanticizing raw energy. In Xunzi’s world, what looks like strength can be the first symptom of disorder.
The specific intent is corrective. Xunzi, the famously unsentimental Confucian, insists that human impulses don’t naturally self-regulate. Desire, pride, and competitiveness can feel like healthy momentum, but left unchecked they thicken into aggression and faction. “Balance and harmony” aren’t vibe words here; they’re engineered outcomes produced by ritual (li), music, and disciplined conduct. Harmony is a technology of restraint. You don’t “express yourself” into social peace; you train yourself into it.
The subtext cuts against the seductive fantasy that strong passions guarantee moral clarity. Xunzi is saying: intensity is morally ambiguous. Robustness can be a threat to the self and to everyone nearby, especially in periods of instability like the late Warring States, when ambitious men and ambitious states kept mistaking expansion for flourishing.
Context matters: Xunzi watched competing schools sell easy fixes and charismatic spontaneity. His retort is managerial and bracingly modern: when the system runs hot, you don’t celebrate the heat; you install regulators. Balance is not the opposite of power. It’s what keeps power from becoming pathology.
The specific intent is corrective. Xunzi, the famously unsentimental Confucian, insists that human impulses don’t naturally self-regulate. Desire, pride, and competitiveness can feel like healthy momentum, but left unchecked they thicken into aggression and faction. “Balance and harmony” aren’t vibe words here; they’re engineered outcomes produced by ritual (li), music, and disciplined conduct. Harmony is a technology of restraint. You don’t “express yourself” into social peace; you train yourself into it.
The subtext cuts against the seductive fantasy that strong passions guarantee moral clarity. Xunzi is saying: intensity is morally ambiguous. Robustness can be a threat to the self and to everyone nearby, especially in periods of instability like the late Warring States, when ambitious men and ambitious states kept mistaking expansion for flourishing.
Context matters: Xunzi watched competing schools sell easy fixes and charismatic spontaneity. His retort is managerial and bracingly modern: when the system runs hot, you don’t celebrate the heat; you install regulators. Balance is not the opposite of power. It’s what keeps power from becoming pathology.
Quote Details
| Topic | Chinese Proverbs |
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