Solving for the Triad: Xunzi and Wendell Berry on Sustainable Agriculture as Ethical Practice

Abstract

The classical Confucian figure Xunzi is well known for his idea that humans can act as the central link in creating a mutually beneficial Triad with Heaven and Earth by exercising their unique abilities to govern the interactions of all three. In this essay, the details of this broadly anthropocentric ecological view are examined and read alongside the similarly anthropocentric ecological view of American essayist Wendell Berry, in order to argue that Xunzi's ecological thought ramifies in the specific ethical practices of what we would call sustainable, small-scale, intensive agriculture.