Chapter 3131장
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.
仲尼祖述堯舜，憲章文武。上律天時，下襲水土。辟如天地之無不持載，無不覆幬。辟如四時之錯行，如日月之代明。萬物並育而不相害。道並行而不相悖。小德川流；大德敦化。此天地之所以爲大也。
Zhongni handed down the way of Yao and Shun, and he took King Wen and King Wu as his pattern and made it clear. Above he took the seasons of heaven as his law, and below he followed the water and the earth.
It is like heaven and earth, which hold and carry everything and cover and shelter everything. It is like the four seasons, which come in turn, and like the sun and the moon, which shine in turn.
The ten thousand things grow side by side and do not harm one another. The ways run side by side and do not go against one another. Small virtue flows like a stream. Great virtue works change in earnest. This is why heaven and earth are great.