Xunzi’s writings are insistent in their rebuke of those who believe that heaven is an entity responsive to their entreaties: “You pray for rain and it rains. Why? For no particular reason, I say. It is just as though you had not prayed for rain and it rained anyway.” And, he reminds them, “heaven does not suspend the winter because men dislike the cold” (sec. 17, “A Discussion of Heaven”). His insistence indicates how pervasive he regards the “superstitious” practices and beliefs of the day to be.
