An Exploration of the Concept of Zhong in the Teachings of Confucianism

Abstract

In the fifth year of the reign of Shaoxi [in the Song dynasty]—in other words, in the year 1194 A.D.—Zhu Xi (1130-1200) was returning to his home province after he had been relieved of his position at court as daizhi shijiang (junior court lecturer) when, in the eleventh month of that year he came to Yushan county in Jiangxi Province. The governor of the district invited Master Zhu to give a number of lectures at the local county (pari) school, and Master Zhu complied, discoursing on essential teachings in response to the questions that were raised by the students as well as in response to the lectures given by other scholars. At one point, the record says, the scholar Cheng Gong1 rose to ask the question: "Philosophers prior to the Three Ages only spoke about zhong (middle, or moderation) and ji (extreme, or ultimate); how come, then, that when it came to the time of the dialogues of those in the school of Confucius, everything seemed to revolve around the word ren (benevolence, or compassionate humanene...