SPECIAL ISSUE： RECONSTRUCTING THE GENEALOGY OF CONFUCIANISM： XUN ZI＇S THOUGHT AND HIS HISTORICAL IMAGEIntroduction

Xun Zi （c. 336 BC-238 BC; given name Kuang）, who lived in the State of Zhao （now Handan City, Hebei Province） during the Warring States period, was a great thinker and educator. As the last master of Confucianism in the Pre-Qin period, he established his own system of thought by inheriting and developing that of Confucius and assimilating the achievements of other contemporary philosophers. His scholarly thought had a great influence on later ages. The spread of the Five Classics （The Book of Songs, The Book of Documents, The Book of Rites, The Book of Changes and The Spring and Autumn Annals） in the Hart Dynasty owed almost entirely to his disciples. From the Han to the Tang, people such as Sima Qian, Liu Xiang, Wang Chong, Yan Zhitui, Wei Zheng and Yang Jing put Xun Zi ahead of Mencius, showing that his influence outweighed the latter＇s. Xun Zi＇s philosophy lay at the heart of thinking on state administration in the Han and Tang, two of the most prosperous dynasties in Chinese history.