Man Is Both Good-natured And Bad-natured According To Yan Hiung
: THE NATURE OF MANAccording to Yang Hiung and his followers, good is no less real than
evil, and evil is no more unreal than good. Therefore man must be
double-natured-that is, partly good and partly bad. This is the
reason why the history of man is full of fiendish crimes, and, at the
same time, it abounds with godly deeds. This is the reason why
mankind comprises, on the one hand, a Socrates, a Confucius, a Jesus,
and, on the other
to-day a honest fellow in him whom we find a betrayer to-morrow.
[FN#163] Yan Hiung (died A.D. 18) is the reputed author of Tai Huen
(Tai-gen) and Fah Yen (Ho-gen). His opinion in reference to human
nature is found in Fah Yen.
This view of man's nature might explain our present moral state, yet
it calls forth many questions bard to answer. If this assertion be
true, is it not a useless task to educate man with the purpose of
making him better and nobler? How could one extirpate man's bad
nature implanted within him at his origin? If man be double-natured,
how did he come to set good over evil? How did he come to consider
that he ought to be good and ought not to be bad? How could you
establish the authority of morality?
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