Great Learning

The Great Learning (大学chinese /大学, Pinyin Da Xue ) is the first of four books that Zhu Xi explained in the Song Dynasty, the basis of Confucianism. Originally, this is a chapter in the Book of Rites.

Content

The book consists of a short main text attributed to Confucius and nine commentary chapters from the pen of Zeng Zi, a student of Confucius.

Literary significance

The Great Learning owed ​​its importance to the fact that he took on a number of issues of Chinese philosophy and political thinking and linked in a unique way.

Government, self-cultivation and the exploration of the world are inextricably linked. Doing the individual is placed in the service of higher goals such as the achievement of world peace and the union of spirit and matter. By defining the " way of learning " in political and social terms, this work combines the spiritual with the practical, creating a concept the Dao, which radically differs from the Daoism. In particular, bears The Great Learning a major factor in this world, world facing orientation of Confucianism. Not on the authority of transcendent deities it bases its doctrine, but rather on the practical work of the sage kings of antiquity.

Some lyrics are for the political discourse of both classical and modern China are equally important. So was about the thematized in the Daxue concept of world peace of the Zhou Dynasty until the time of the Guomindang and the era of communism as a stated goal of Chinese policy. The term Qinmin, often translated as "renewal of the people" should give a party of the Republic of China the name.

Translations

  • Richard Wilhelm: Li -Gi. The book the custom of the older and the younger Dai. Records of culture and religion of ancient China. Diederichs, Jena, 1930. Several new editions as Li Gi. The book of rites, customs and traditions, including Diederichs, Cologne 1981, ISBN 3-424-00691-2.
  • Ralf Moritz: The Great Learning ( Daxue ). Reclam, 2003, ISBN 3-15-018265-4.
  • Hua Shaoxiang, Gregor Kneussel: The Great Learning. Publisher Foreign Languages ​​Press, Beijing, 2010, ISBN 978-7-119-06173-3 (bilingual edition, Chinese- German, with Pinyin. )
  • James Legge: The Chinese Classics, Vol 1, pp. 22-34. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1893. Numerous reprints, including BookSurge, 2000, ISBN 1-4021-8486-7.
Chinese calligraphy Tainan Kuomintang Richard Wilhelm (sinologist)
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