The Eyes and Ears of the Ruler: Bodily Tropes in the Xunzi’s Discourse on Governance

This paper examines bodily tropes in the Xunzi’s discussions of effective governance and rulership, identifying five types: tropes that highlight the ruler’s bodily limitations; the interdependence of the ruler’s body and the polity; the notion that all constituents form one body; the merging of hearts; and the changing of hearts. Contextual analysis suggests that these tropes do not coalesce into a unified theory of governance but instead reflect diverse, sometimes conflicting, perspectives. Situating these findings within existing scholarship, the paper notes prior emphases on themes of unity and self-cultivation, and the assumption that the human body’s putatively necessary unity grounds these analogies. It then advances three new insights: in the Xunzi, unity appears in multiple forms; some tropes address practical questions of statecraft; and what the human body exemplifies is the effort required to achieve unity in its various forms—an effort that gives these analogies their force.