孔子繼承並發展古人思想，知道古人對人性頗為疑慮，需要君與師之教導。孔子倡言自我的覺醒，要人真誠面對自己，覺察由內而生的力量以促使自己主動行善。他的核心觀念是仁，兼顧人之性、人之道與人之成，分別指示了：由真誠而向善、擇善固執與止於至善。孟子受孔子天命觀與人性觀的啟發，提出心之四端、人生快樂與人生境界之說，完成了儒家體系。本文認為，只有以人性向善論才可適當理解儒家思想。

Confucius, in his era, proclaims that every person should awake and treat himself in sincere way. In so doing, he will perceive a dynamism from within to urge himself to do good things. Confucius’ core idea is “ren”, the meaning of which covers the nature, the correct way, and the fulfillment of human beings. A person, being sincere, will assure that his nature is tending toward goodness, that his correct way is choosing what is good and holding it fast, and his fulfillment is attaining perfection like a sage. Later on, Mencius develops and completes Confucius’ system which can be adequately described as the theory of human nature as tending toward goodness.