Abstract: Guo Xiang’s ideological system of the unison of Confucianism and Taoism makes the Taoist thoughts of natural inaction as the external framework and the Confucian thoughts of governing state as the kernel, and its fundamental purpose is to re-establish a set of natural order of the ethical codes to help settle the society and the individual. Guo Xiang used the “Nature” of Taoism to demonstrate the rationality of the existence of “the Ethical Codes” of Confucianism and found the metaphysical basis for “the Ethical Codes” of Confucianism, which was a kind of self-salvation for internal Confucianism to rescue its dead-end ethical codes. Guo Xiang realized the transformation from negative “inaction” of Taoism to positive “action” of Confucianism through the assertions of regarding the “three cardinal guides and the five constant virtues” in the feudal ethical codes as humans’ nature, rectifying the name of Sage King and setting Crownless King as a moral example, which showed its ideological attribution and Confucianized value orientation of “Confucianism inside and Taoism outside” of metaphysics.

Key words: ethical codes, nature, Confucianism inside and Taoism outside