学界在论及荀子的君民关系思想时出现了两种不同的观点。一些学者认为荀子是民本主义者，继承了孔孟以来儒家重民、爱民的传统。代表人物有金耀基、南生杰、廖名春等人。而另外一些学者则认为荀子背离了孔孟以来儒家的民本主义传统，走向了君本主义。代表人物有游唤民、王保国、陈雍等人。这两派观点争论不断。荀子是著名的思想家、教育家、文学家，是战国末期儒学的传承者。他提出了君民“舟水”关系说，其说弱化了传统儒家民本思想的力度，强化了君主专制的权威，从根本上构筑了儒学君本主义体系。在荀子看来，作为社会多数的民既无德也无知，不具备从政的能力，荀子从君主施政的角度把民众排除在外，确立了君主的政治主宰地位，这是明显的君本思想。本文试就荀子的君本论和君民“舟水”关系说进行一些深层次的探讨。

When discussing Xunzi’s thought on ruler‑people relations, academic circles hold two divergent viewpoints. Some scholars regard Xunzi as a thinker of people‑centered thought, who inherited the Confucian tradition of valuing and loving the people dating back to Confucius and Mencius. Representative scholars include Jin Yaoji, Nan Shengjie, Liao Mingchun and others. Other scholars, however, argue that Xunzi departed from the Confucian people‑centered tradition of Confucius and Mencius and turned to monarch‑centered thought. Representatives of this view are You Huanmin, Wang Baoguo, Chen Zhun and so forth. Debates between these two schools of thought have persisted.As a prominent thinker, educator and litterateur, Xunzi was an inheritor of Confucianism in the late Warring‑States Period. He put forward the “boat‑and‑water” metaphor for ruler‑people relations. This metaphor weakened the strength of traditional Confucian people‑centered thought while reinforcing the authority of autocratic monarchy, fundamentally constructing the Confucian ideological system of monarch‑centered thought. From Xunzi’s perspective, the majority of common people possessed neither moral virtue nor wisdom, and were incompetent for political governance. From the standpoint of monarchical administration, Xunzi excluded ordinary people from political participation and established the dominant political status of the monarch, which represents obvious monarch‑centered thinking. This paper attempts to conduct an in‑depth exploration of Xunzi’s monarch‑centered theory and his “boat‑and‑water” metaphor of ruler‑people relations.