Gaozi
Sign in to saveGaozi (; ca. 420-350 BCE), or Gao Buhai (), was a Chinese philosopher during the Warring States period. Gaozi's teachings are no longer extant, but he was a contemporary of Mencius (ca. 372-289 BCE), and most of our knowledge about him comes from the Mencius book (6) titled "Gaozi".
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- human
- Gender
- male
- Occupation
- philosopher
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- date of birth
- 0401-01-01
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Gaozi (; ca. 420-350 BCE), or Gao Buhai (), was a Chinese philosopher during the Warring States period. Gaozi's teachings are no longer extant, but he was a contemporary of Mencius (ca. 372-289 BCE), and most of our knowledge about him comes from the Mencius book (6) titled "Gaozi".
Warring States philosophers disputed whether human nature is originally good (Mencius) or evil (Xunzi). The "Gaozi" chapter begins with a famous metaphor about a type of willow tree ( (qǐliǔ)). (Qi was also an ancient place name, best known through the four-character idiom [qǐrényōutiān'', "person from Qi who worried heaven might fall"] "groundless fears; superfluous worry".) The philosopher [Gao] said, 'Man's nature is like the [qi]-willow, and righteousness is like a cup or a bowl. The fashioning benevolence and righteousness out of man's nature is like the making cups and bowls from the [qi]-willow.'
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Gaozi” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.