Xun Yue (d. 209 AD) was a Later Han time 後漢 official that tried to pursue the emperor to follow a renewed style of government, combining Confucian system with the good performing legist approach. Unlike the Daoist oriented scholars, he did not retire from government, but actively tried to support the weak governmental system. Among his few writings, a parallel history of the Former Han Dynasty (Hanshu 漢書) is still extant, the Hanji 漢紀. As a Confucian, he looked back to the roots and denied the difference between old text school and new text school that had emerged during the Former Han Dynasty. Human nature was for him neither solely good (like Mengzi 孟子 teaches) nor solely bad (like Xunzi 荀子 teaches), but Xun Yue followed the approach of the historian Liu Xiang 劉向 who saw character and emotions as responding to each other, the character not being purely good nor emotions being purely bad. The following examples give a picture of Xun Yue's vision of the universal order and his proposals for a good government.	Chapters of the Shenjian 1.政體 Zhengti Essence of Government 2.時事 Shishi Current Affairs 3.俗嫌 Sujian Common Superstitions 4.-5.雜言 Zayan Miscellaneous Dialogues 1-2
	Exemplarious translation: １．政體 ．．．立天之道，曰陰與陽。立地之道，曰柔與剛。立人之道， 曰仁與義。陰陽以統其精氣，剛柔以品其群形，仁義以經其事業。是為道也。故凡政之大經， 法教而已。教者，陽之化也。法者，陰之符也。仁也者，慈此者也。義也者，宜此者也。 禮也者，履此者也。信也者，守此者也。智也者，知此者也。是故好惡以章之，喜怒以蒞之，哀樂以恤之。 若乃二端不愆，五德不離，六節不悖，則三才允序，五事交備，百工惟厘，庶績咸熙．．． The essence of government The elements constituting the Heavenly way, are yin and yang. The elements constituting the Earth, are soft and harsh. The elements making out the way of Man, are humanity and righteousness. Yin and yang are combined to be the aerial essence of Heaven, harsh and soft together build the shape of all objects, and humanity and righteousness are the network for all human activities. This is called "the way". Therefore, the basic elements for government are rules and education, nothing else. Education is the transformation of yang, rules are symbol of yin. Humanity means, to be benevolent; righteousness means, to be adequate; ritus means, to follow the rules of the ancient; trust means, to keep shure these rules; wisdom means, to know how to act. Therefore, good and bad serve to clear those, joy and anger serve to make them present; sadness and gladness serve to sympathize with them. Thus, if the two extremes of education and rules will not be too strong, if the five virtues (humanity, righteousness, rites, trust and wisdom) will not be left, and if the six connections will not be confronted, the three realms of Heaven, Earth and Man will be in appropriate order, the five affairs complete each other, the hundred works will be correct, and all achievements will be peacefully and happy [...] 榮辱者，賞罰之精華也。故禮教榮辱以加君子，化其情也。桎梏鞭朴以加小人，治其刑也．．．若夫中人之倫，則刑禮兼焉．．．賞罰，政之柄也。明賞必罰，審信慎令。賞以勸善，罰以懲惡。人主不妄賞，非徒愛其才也，妄賞行則善不勸矣。不妄罰，非徒慎其刑也，妄罰行則惡不懲矣．．． Honor and dishonor are the flowering essence of reward and punishment. Therefore, rites and education, honor and dishonor can be put upon a noble man to make his character better. Whip and cudgel are put upon a small-minded person to be a punishment for him [...] For the average man, a mix between punishment and ritual treatment would be best [...] Reward and punishment are the two handles for government. A ruler who enlightens the rewards, must also use punishment, examine loyalty and carefully give orders. Reward is useful to encourage good people, punishment can be used to chastise the bad. The ruler of men should not recklessly make use of rewards; he would not only stick to his subject's abilites, but good people are not encouraged. And he should not precipitantly make use of punishments; he should not only carefully think about punishments, but really bad people will not be punished if he recklessly practises punishment. Translated by Ulrich Theobald. There is an English translation of the Shenjian by Ch'i-Yün Ch'en "Hsün Yüeh and the Mind of Late Han China", published by Princeton University Press.