Chapter 77장

Daxue (The Great Learning) A piece of fewer than two thousand characters, and one of the most committed to memory in all East Asia. It opens with "making bright virtue bright, being close to the people, and coming to rest in the utmost good," and threads eight steps on a single line, from measuring things and extending knowing to the full all the way to bringing all under heaven to a level — the investigation of things, the extension of knowing, making the intent true, making the mind upright, cultivating the person, setting the household in order, governing the state, and bringing peace to all under heaven. About the middle, "being careful when alone" comes twice, and the last chapter is given over wholly to wealth and to men. The saying that when wealth is gathered the people scatter and when wealth is scattered the people gather, and Meng Xianzi's word that one would sooner have a minister who steals than a minister who gathers in, are both here.