First, the origin of The Doctrine of the Mean
The doctrine of the mean was originally chapter 31 of Xiao Dai's Book of Rites. The works of a Confucian scholar in the Warring States period were revised and collated by scholars in the Qin Dynasty. In the Western Han Dynasty, there were works devoted to explaining the Doctrine of the Mean. History of Literature and Art in Han Dynasty contains twenty-three articles on Zi Si and two articles on the Doctrine of the Mean. In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, there were two volumes of The Doctrine of the Mean written by Song Dynasty Qing, one volume of The Doctrine of the Mean written by Liang Wudi and five volumes of The Doctrine of the Mean recorded privately, which can be found in Sui Shu Chronicle. All these books are lost. In the Song Dynasty, scholars put it in a prominent position and explored the golden mean. Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi advocated the golden mean in the Northern Song Dynasty. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhu wrote The Doctrine of the Mean, which is called the "Four Books" together with The University, The Analects of Confucius and Mencius. After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, The Doctrine of the Mean became an official textbook and a must-read in the imperial examination, which had a great influence on ancient education.
Second, the author of the doctrine of the mean.
There are different opinions about who is the author of The Doctrine of the Mean. Sima Qian said in Historical Records Confucius Family: "Apollo was born, and the word Zisi was sixty-two. Taste sleepy song. Zisi is the golden mean. " Zheng Xuan also said in the Catalogue of Three Rites: "The author of the golden mean ... the grandson of Confucius thought about it to show the virtue of a saint. "A Qing scholar Cui Shu asserted that The Doctrine of the Mean was not written by Zisi. Feng Youlan, a close friend, once thought that the text in the middle section of this edition of The Doctrine of the Mean gave full play to Confucius' theory, and the text was written in words, which seemed to be the original appearance of Zi Si's The Doctrine of the Mean. The first and second paragraphs of this edition seem to give full play to the mysticism tendency in Mencius' philosophy, and its text is an argumentative genre, which was later added by Confucianism. Recently, according to historical records, some scholars quoted the criticism of Meng Si School in Xunzi Fei Shi Zi as circumstantial evidence, and affirmed that Zisi was the golden mean. However, the words "the car is on the same track, the book is the same, and the line is the same" in the book were added after the reunification of Qin Dynasty.
Third, the concept of the mean.
As a concept, the doctrine of the mean first appeared in The Analects of Confucius, but the concept of "respecting the middle" has a long history. As early as Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Jin Dynasty, the word "Zhong" appeared, and concepts such as "Sino-German", "Zhong Punishment" and "Bank of China" appeared many times in the Book of Changes, Shangshu and The Book of Songs. In particular, the eight trigrams and three hexagrams in the Book of Changes embody the three talents of heaven and earth. Among them, man is the essence of heaven and earth, so the middle position is the most important, which is the embodiment of people's concept of "respecting China" in Fuxi era. There are six hexagrams in the Book of Changes, and the second and fifth hexagrams are in the best position, because they are all between the upper and lower hexagrams. There is a word "Yun Zhi is absolutely in the middle school" in Shangshu Mo Yu. Some people think that China's ancient books were the first to talk about the middle way. However, Dayu Mo is a pseudo-ancient prose, and it is difficult to research why and when some people say it. Laozi's advocate, Zhang Shouzhong, emphasized the concepts of "governing by doing nothing", "selfish without desire", "being rich and arrogant, taking the blame on yourself" and "being a husband is indisputable, so there is nothing special". Laozi believes that the middle state of harmony between Yin and Yang is the most stable and lasting, and its ideological essence is to oppose going to extremes and let everything go with the flow. Laozi's "keeping the center" originated from the concepts of "extremes of things must be reversed" and "yin flourishes while yang declines" in Zhouyi. At the same time, the word "Yong" often appears in ancient books such as Shangshu. Confucius only inherited and developed the idea of "respecting China" in the Yin and Zhou Dynasties, and organically combined China with mediocrity for the first time, and further promoted it to the height of philosophical theory. Finally, he clearly and formally put forward the concept of the golden mean for the first time in the history of China's thought. Confucius believes that the doctrine of the mean is not only the epistemology and methodology in philosophy, but also the code of conduct for life cultivation. Therefore, the doctrine of the mean has become a guiding ideology, which has penetrated into philosophy, politics, economy, culture, daily life and other fields, and is deeply rooted in the ideology of the broad masses of China people.
Fourth, the main idea of the golden mean.
The Doctrine of the Mean, with a total of 4,702 words, is a Confucian exposition of the Doctrine of the Mean and the principle of human cultivation. Zheng Xuan pointed out in The Book of Rites The Doctrine of the Mean: "The Doctrine of the Mean is recorded and used; Useless and useful. Confucius' grandson thought about it to show the virtue of a saint. "The doctrine of the mean emphasizes that people can't leave the doctrine of the mean for a moment, but they should practice the doctrine of the mean and respect the nature of talent and learn the day after tomorrow.
From the content point of view, it mainly includes three points:
First of all, it reveals what the golden mean is. The concept of the golden mean comes from The Analects of Confucius. This paper expounds it, and points out that the golden mean refers to a state that is always appropriate (so-called "being in time"), and a gentleman should always adhere to this standard.
The second is to explore the idea of "sincerity". What is honesty? Sincerity has two meanings: one is the sincerity of people's hearts, that is, sincerity; The other is the natural sincerity of the universe, which means that everything in the world conforms to the law. The so-called "honesty, heaven" and "honesty, the end of things" mean this.
The third is to point out the relationship between the doctrine of the mean and sincerity. The doctrine of the mean refers to the way people behave, and honesty refers to the way nature works. The combination of the two is based on the idea that the reason why people should pursue the golden mean behavior mode is because people should learn from nature, reach the state of sincerity, and make people conform to the laws of heaven and earth. The so-called "to achieve neutrality, the status of heaven, everything will be nurtured."
Therefore, the opening program of The Doctrine of the Mean should be understood as follows: Heaven and man are interlinked, and man and heaven have the same attributes and laws. As long as people act according to their own laws, they can be in tune with heaven and earth. Human beings have subjective initiative and desire, so they will deviate from the law, which requires education to make them follow the law.
It can be seen that the most striking feature of The Doctrine of the Mean is that it has found a new basis for a series of Confucian moral concepts such as the Doctrine of the Mean, Sincerity, Prudence, Loyalty and Forgiveness, Self-cultivation, Benevolence and Courage, that is, it comes from the nature of the universe. As we know, Confucianism doesn't like to talk about the nature of heaven, but Taoism and Yi Zhuan like to talk about heaven. On the basis of absorbing the thoughts of Taoism and Yi Zhuan, The Doctrine of the Mean puts forward the metaphysical thought of "sincerity".
The Doctrine of the Mean requires people to practice the "way of loyalty and forgiveness" handed down by Confucius, saying: "Loyalty and forgiveness are not far from violating the Tao. Don't do to others what you don't want. " It is Kong Qiu's thought of "Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you" that requires a "golden mean" in dealing with the relationship between people. The Doctrine of the Mean also points out that people with virtue must be good at "three virtues" and implement "five virtues" in order to reach the realm of "the Doctrine of the Mean". The so-called "five links" are "monarch and minister, father and son, husband and wife, brother Kun and friends." The principles of handling these five aspects are: loyalty to the monarch, filial piety to the father, loyalty to the wife, respect for the brother and loyalty to the friend. The implementation of the "five ways" depends on the "three dads": wisdom, benevolence and courage. To achieve "three virtues" and reach the realm of the mean, we must rely on "sincerity". The purpose of education is to make people strive to cultivate their own subjective mind, so as to achieve the realm of "sincerity".