Chapter 1111장
Zhongyong (The Doctrine of the Mean) It begins: "What Heaven decrees is called the nature. Following the nature is called the way. Cultivating the way is called teaching." Of the Four Books it is the one that reaches furthest.
The first half gathers the words of Confucius to say why the mean is so hard — all under heaven can be governed evenly, rank and pay can be declined, a bare blade can be trodden on, and still the mean cannot be done. The second half turns on truth alone, saying that truth is the way of Heaven and making oneself true is the way of man, and it goes at last to standing third beside Heaven and earth.
The saying "where another is able in one try, I make it a hundred; where another is able in ten, I make it a thousand" comes from here too.
子曰：「素隱行怪，後世有述焉：吾弗爲之矣。君子遵道而行，半塗而廢：吾弗能已矣。君子依乎中庸。遯世不見知而不悔：唯聖者能之。」
Confucius said, "To dig into what is hidden and to do strange things may win a man a record in later ages, but I do not do it. The gentleman follows the way and walks it, and gives up halfway, but I cannot give up. The gentleman leans on the mean. To turn his back on the world and not be known and still not regret it, only the sage can do that."