The great learning

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Calligraphy of the text in the Confucius Temple of Tainan .

The Great Learning ( Chinese  大學  /  大学 , Pinyin Dà Xué ) is the first of the four books that Zhu Xi declared the basis of Confucianism in the Song Dynasty . Originally this was a chapter in the Book of Rites .

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

Literary meaning

The Great Learning owes its importance to the fact that it takes up numerous topics of Chinese philosophy and political thought and combines them in a unique way.

Government, self-cultivation, and exploring the world become inextricably linked. The actions of the individual are placed in the service of higher goals such as the attainment of world peace and the union of spirit and matter. By defining the "way of learning" in political and social terms, the work combines the spiritual with the practical, creating a concept of Dao that is radically different from that in Daoism . In particular, the great learning makes a decisive contribution to the worldly, worldly orientation of Confucianism. It does not base its teaching on the authority of transcendent deities, but rather on the practical work of the wise kings of antiquity.

Some passages are equally important for the political discourse of classical and modern China. For example, the concept of world peace discussed in the Daxue was a declared goal of Chinese politics from the Zhou dynasty to the Guomindang period and the communist era . The term Qinmin , often translated as "people's renewal", was intended to give its name to a party in the Republic of China (Taiwan) .

Translations

  • Richard Wilhelm : Li-Gi. The Book of Customs of the Elder and the Younger Dai. Records of the Culture and Religion of Ancient China . Diederichs, Jena 1930. Several new editions as Li Gi. The book of rites, customs and customs , 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 . Publishing House for Foreign Language Literature, 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 .

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