Zhongyong

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tu Wei-Ming
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Traditional View ◽  
Confucian Tradition ◽  
Great Learning ◽  
Critical Scholarship ◽  
Doctrine Of The Mean ◽  
The Mean

The Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean) has traditionally been ascribed to Zisi, the grandson of Confucius and the indirect teacher of Mencius. Although this ascription has been challenged by modern critical scholarship since the turn of the twentieth century, recent archaeological finds indicate that the traditional view is not without textual base. If the Zhongyong actually predated the Mengzi, it seems that a significant portion of the Liji (Book of Rites), of which the Daxue (Great Learning) and Zhongyong are chapters, contains documents of the fifth century bc. This fact alone merits a fundamental restructuring of classical Confucian chronology and reinterpretation of the Mencian line of the Confucian tradition.

Daxue

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tu Wei-Ming
Keyword(s):  
Civil Service ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Confucian Tradition ◽  
Zhu Xi ◽  
Great Learning ◽  
Doctrine Of The Mean ◽  
The Status ◽  
Four Books ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Civil Service Examinations

Originally a chapter in the Liji (Book of Rites), one of the Five Classics in the Confucian tradition, the Daxue (Great Learning) has for centuries attained the status of a canon, arguably the most influential foundational text in East Asian Confucian humanism. When the great neo-Confucian thinker Zhu Xi grouped the Daxue with the Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean), another chapter in the Liji, the Confucian Analects and the Mengzi as the Four Books, its prominence in the Confucian scriptural tradition was assured. Since the Four Books with Master Zhu’s commentaries became the required readings for the civil service examinations in 1313, and since Master Zhu insisted that the Daxue must be studied first among the Four, it has been widely acknowledged as the quintessential Confucian text.

Zhu Xi’s Commentarial Work

Zhu Xi ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 187-204
Author(s):  
Daniel K. Gardner
Keyword(s):  
Zhu Xi ◽  
Great Learning ◽  
Doctrine Of The Mean ◽  
Four Books ◽  
The Mean

This chapter presents a translation of chapters 1–11 of Abiding in the Mean and the Constant (sometimes translated as the Doctrine of the Mean), one of the Four Books, along with Zhu Xi’s commentary. For Zhu Xi all thirteen classics were precious, but he developed a graded curriculum. At the top he placed the Four Books: the Great Learning (Daxue大學‎), Analects (Lunyu論語‎), Mengzi (孟子‎), and Abiding in the Mean and the Constant (Zhongyong中庸‎). Their appeal, he wrote, was their “ease, immediacy, and brevity.” Pattern-principle could be more readily investigated and accessed in these four works than in any other text, or in any other thing. Only when they had fully mastered these four texts would Zhu encourage students to turn to the previously authoritative Five Classics (the Classic of Changes, Odes, Book of Documents, Book of Rites, and Spring and Autumn Annals).

scholarly journals Filial Piety in Confucianism and Islam: A Comparative Literary Analysis of Qur'an, Hadith, and Four Chinese Classics

ICR Journal ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-153
Author(s):  
Osman Abdullah (Chuah Hock Leng) ◽  
Abdul Salam Muhamad Shukri ◽  
Normala Othman
Keyword(s):  
Filial Piety ◽  
Family System ◽  
Literary Analysis ◽  
Great Learning ◽  
Doctrine Of The Mean ◽  
The Family ◽  
Four Books ◽  
The Mean

This article is an attempt to compare the teachings of Confucius and Islam, specifically The Four Books, which are authoritative works on Confucius, and the original sources of Islam, Qur’an and Sunnah. The Four Books are the most quoted sources of Confucius’ thought, namely The Great Learning (Da Xue), The Doctrine of the Mean (Zhong Yong), The Confucian Analects (Lun Yu) and The Works of Mencius (Mengzi). The focus shall be on the concept of family and filial piety as found in Confucianism and Qur’an and Sunnah. Both the teachings of Confucius and Islam emphasise the importance of virtues, ties and order in the family system, for example, the husband is the head of the family and responsible for the family’s existence and security. Islam and Confucianism are both patriarchal, and the husband and men are protectors of the family and deserve much respect. Young members of the family must respect and obey the elders and vice versa. To Confucius, these virtues are the heavenly way and must be

Creolised Confucianism: Syncretism and Confucian revivalism at the turn of the twentieth century in Java

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 154-174
Author(s):  
Oiyan Liu
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Language Translation ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
East Indies ◽  
Doctrine Of The Mean ◽  
Netherlands East Indies ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Late Nineteenth

Confucian revivalism swept over China, the Straits Settlements and the Netherlands East Indies in the late nineteenth century. Rather than perceiving China as the single foundational centre for Confucian ideas, this article argues that pioneering Confucian revivalists who undertook to translate, interpret and spread Confucian knowledge in Java did not simply follow mainstream ideas that prevailed in China, or the lead of the Straits Settlements. Considered as the first Malay language translation of the ‘Great Learning’ and the ‘Doctrine of the Mean’, with accompanying commentaries, Yoe Tjai Siang and Tan Ging Tiong's Kitab Tai Hak–Tiong Iong (1900), contained an eclectic blend of Hokkien/Chinese, Malay, Javanese, Dutch/Christian and Arabic/Islamic concepts and vocabulary. Analysis of the translators’ aims and the work itself, shows that Java's peranakan Chinese initially developed a unique, creolised interpretation of Confucianism, while being connected to other reformers and revivalists in China and the Straits Settlements. As these connections and formal educational exchanges intensified, this creolised interpretation of Confucianism in Java would give way to a more orthodox version.

scholarly journals Chance and Necessity in Zhu Xi's Conceptions of Heaven and Tradition

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-162
Author(s):  
Joseph Adler
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Biblical Theology ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Confucian Tradition ◽  
Unique Combination ◽  
The West ◽  
Confucian Thought ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

Discussion of the relationship between chance and necessity in the West goes back at least to Democritus in the fifth century  BCE , and was highlighted again in the twentieth century by Jacques Monod in Chance and Necessity. Monod contrasted “teleonomic” (directional but not directed) biological evolution with “teleologic” (purpose-driven) Biblical theology. This article uses that distinction in examining Zhu Xi’s concepts of Heaven (in particular the “mandate” or “givenness” of Heaven) and tradition (focusing on the normative Confucian tradition, the “succession of the Way” or daotong). The result sheds light on the unique combination of rationality and transcendence in Neo-Confucian thought.

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