Chapter 2525장
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.
至誠之道可以前知。國家將興，必有禎祥；國家將亡，必有妖孽。見乎蓍龜，動乎四體。禍福將至，善必先知之；不善，必先知之。故至誠如神。
The way of the utmost truth can know beforehand. When a state is about to rise, there are surely signs of good fortune. When a state is about to perish, there are surely strange and baleful signs. They show in the yarrow stalks and the tortoise shell, and they stir in the four limbs. When disaster or blessing is about to come, he surely knows beforehand what is good, and he surely knows beforehand what is not good. So the utmost truth is like a spirit.