The Doctrine of the Mean · 1 of 34

Introduction and Edition Note

About This Edition

The Doctrine of the Mean, or Zhongyong, is traditionally attributed to Zisi, the grandson of Confucius, called Tsze-sze in this translation. Its authorship and date of composition remain uncertain. Preserved in the Book of Rites, it later became one of the Four Books associated with Zhu Xi’s teaching. Zhu Xi appears here under Legge’s spelling, Chu Hsi. The claims about authorship and transmission in his introductory and concluding notes belong to that later interpretive tradition.

This reading edition contains all thirty-three chapters in James Legge’s translation, checked against the bilingual Four Books published by the Commercial Press, China. The scanned reprint is cataloged with an uncertain twentieth-century date. Its translated traditional introduction and concluding notes are included and labeled separately. The Chinese text and Legge’s detailed philological footnotes are not reproduced. His historical English and familiar name spellings are retained; printed section numbers and paragraph boundaries have been restored.

Two editorial supplies are marked in square brackets. Chapter 19, section 5, restores the meaning of a Chinese sentence omitted from the facing English; the note there explains the source. Chapter 28, section 3, supplies “for” to clarify the printed phrase “and all conduct there are the same rules.” The closing quotation mark after chapter 28’s opening speech is editorial: the intervening narrator’s explanations are distinguished from the next speech. Other damaged words and punctuation have been corrected against the print.

Legge’s “superior man” names an ethical ideal; “mean man” describes its petty counterpart and must not be confused with the capitalized Mean. “Sincerity” develops from integrity in conduct into a much wider account of human nature and the workings of Heaven and earth. The book also addresses royal authority, ritual, family hierarchy, spirits, and omens. Its historical claims and ideals are presented as part of the text, with accompanying commentary to help readers understand them.

Traditional Introduction — Chu Hsi, Quoting Ch’ang

My master, the philosopher Ch’ang, says:—“Being without inclination to either side is called CHUNG; admitting of no change is called YUNG. By CHUNG is denoted the correct course to be pursued by all under heaven; by YUNG is denoted the fixed principle regulating all under heaven. This work contains the law of the mind, which was handed down from one to another, in the Confucian school, till Tsze-sze, fearing lest in the course of time errors should arise about it, committed it to writing, and delivered it to Mencius. The Book first speaks of one principle; it next spreads this out, and embraces all things; finally, it returns and gathers them all up under the one principle. Unroll it, and it fills the universe; roll it up, and it retires and lies hid in mysteriousness. The relish of it is inexhaustible. The whole of it is solid learning. When the skillful reader has explored it with delight till he has apprehended it, he may carry it into practice all his life, and will find that it cannot be exhausted.”