Daxue (The Great Learning) 大學 · Ascribed to Zengzi · A text carried in the Book of Rites · 1 passages · 101 Chinese characters · reading time 0.4 min
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.
What is meant by saying that setting the household in order lies in cultivating the person is this. People are one-sided toward those they hold dear and love. They are one-sided toward those they look down on and hate. They are one-sided toward those they fear and revere. They are one-sided toward those they pity. They are one-sided toward those they slight and treat idly.
So those who love and yet know the bad in what they love, who hate and yet know the beauty in what they hate, are rare in all the world. Hence the saying: "No man knows the fault of his own child. No man knows how tall his own grain has grown." This is what is meant by saying that if the person is not cultivated the household cannot be set in order.