Realistic Chinese Confucian. Unlike Confucius and Mencius Hsün Tzu believed not in natural goodness but in the depravity of humanity, to be relieved only by study of the classics, and an education that channelled the wayward direction of desire, supported desires in the right channel by enabling the student to relish their satisfaction, and ennobled personal character. He opposed all kinds of superstition, and set education in the Chinese empire on its subsequent course.