Can Human Nature be Changed? 人性可以改变吗？

From the earliest time to the present days, viewpoints concerning human nature were vehemently contended among prominent philosophers. Mencius believed human nature is good, and people are naturally inclined toward virtue. While, Xunzi deemed human are basically evil who need to be changed by man-made.

从古至今，著名的哲学家们一直激烈地讨论关于人性的观点。孟子认为人性本善，人的本性就是倾向于善良的。而荀子认为人的本性是邪恶的，需要人为的改变。

As it is widely known, human nature is that indestructible matrix upon which the character is built. Accordingly, to a large extent, the basic nature of human beings cannot be changed. On the other hand, each of us is naturally endowed with diverse both qualities and personalities, which makes us unfold an apparently distinct character. Then, it is hard for one to change his nature fundamentally. Regardless of whether nature is innate or habitus acquired, they were both a consistently developing courses that cannot be easily changed in a short time. Last but not the least, external influencing factors, like religious, education and even social institutions can merely direct our nature on account of the most limited control. Thus, it is only the surface that is capable of alteration, improvement and refinement.

众所周知，人性是一个坚不可摧的矩阵，而性格就是建立在这个矩阵上的。因此，在很大程度上，人的基础本性是无法改变的。另一方面，我们每个人都被赋予了不同的品质和性格，这使我们展现出明显不同的性格。那么，一个人很难从根本上改变他的本性。无论是先天的还是后天的习惯，都是一个持续发展的过程，不可能在短时间内轻易改变。最后，但并非最不重要的，外部影响因素，如宗教，教育，甚至社会制度，只能在最有限的控制下指导我们的本性。因此，它只是表面，是可以修改，提高和精化的。

In a word, the basic nature of human beings does not and cannot change and also no one can fundamentally change his nature in the short time. But people can make it perfect.

总之，人的本性是不会也不能改变的，没有人能短期从根本上改变自己的本性。但是人们可以改善它。