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Chapter 2828장

Zhongyong (The Doctrine of the Mean) 中庸 · Ascribed to Zisi · A text carried in the Book of Rites · 1 passages · 134 Chinese characters · reading time 0.5 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.

大哉聖人之道！洋洋乎，發育萬物，峻極於天。優優大哉，禮儀三百威儀三千。待其人而後行。故曰：「茍不至德，至道不凝焉。」故君子尊德性，而道問學，致廣大，而盡精微，極高明，而道中庸。溫故，而知新，敦厚以崇禮。是故居上不驕，爲下不倍。國有道，其言足以興；國無道，其默足以容。詩曰：「既明且哲，以保其身。」其此之謂與？

Great is the way of the sage. Overflowing, it brings forth and rears the ten thousand things, and its height reaches heaven. How ample and great it is. The great rules of rite are three hundred, and the fine rules of bearing are three thousand. It waits for the right man, and only then is it carried out.

So it is said, "Unless there is the utmost virtue, the utmost way does not take shape."

So the gentleman honors virtue and nature and makes asking and learning his way. He reaches the broad and the great and exhausts the fine and the small. He goes to the height of the high and bright and makes the mean his way. He keeps the old warm and knows the new, and with earnest generosity he holds the rites high.

So in a high place he is not proud, and in a low place he does not turn his back. When the state has the way, his words are enough to raise it. When the state has no way, his silence is enough to keep his person safe.

The Odes say, "Bright and wise, he keeps his person safe." Is this not what is meant?

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