Yetgeul › Zhongyong (The Doctrine of the Mean)

Chapter 1818장

Zhongyong (The Doctrine of the Mean) 中庸 · Ascribed to Zisi · A text carried in the Book of Rites · 1 passages · 183 Chinese characters · reading time 0.7 min

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：「無憂者，其惟文王乎。以王季爲父，以武王爲子。父作之，子述之。武王纘大王、王季、文王之緒。壹戎衣，而有天下。身不失天下之顯名。尊爲天子。富有四海之內。宗廟饗之。子孫保之。武王末受命，周公成文武之德。追王大王、王季，上祀先公以天子之禮。斯禮也，達乎諸侯大夫，及士庶人。父爲大夫，子爲士；葬以大夫，祭以士。父爲士，子爲大夫；葬以士，祭以大夫。期之喪，達乎大夫；三年之喪，達乎天子；父母之喪，無貴賤，一也。」

Confucius said,

"The one who had no sorrow was King Wen. He had King Ji for a father and King Wu for a son. The father made it and the son carried it on.

King Wu took up the thread of King Tai, King Ji, and King Wen. Once he put on his armor, and he held all under heaven. He himself did not lose his bright name in all under heaven. In honor he was the Son of Heaven. In wealth he held all within the four seas. The ancestral temple received him in sacrifice, and his sons and grandsons kept him.

King Wu received the mandate late in his life, and the Duke of Zhou completed the virtue of King Wen and King Wu. He raised King Tai and King Ji to the name of king, and above them he sacrificed to the former dukes with the rites of the Son of Heaven. These rites reached the lords, the great officers, the officers, and the common people.

If the father was a great officer and the son an officer, the burial was by the rites of a great officer and the sacrifice by the rites of an officer. If the father was an officer and the son a great officer, the burial was by the rites of an officer and the sacrifice by the rites of a great officer.

Mourning for one year reached up to the great officers. Mourning for three years reached up to the Son of Heaven. In mourning for father and mother there is no high or low. It is one."

‹ Chapter 19ContentsChapter 17 ›Listen to this piece