The Doctrine of the Mean

Zisi c. 400 BCE

A Confucian work on keeping to the steady middle way, which it treats as living in harmony with Heaven, with sincerity at the root of it all. Confucius, quoted throughout, laments that hardly anyone keeps to the Mean for long.

23 pages 27 min reading time

Why it lasts

  • One of the Four Books, which every candidate for office in imperial China had to master.
  • Teaches balance: feelings expressed in due measure bring harmony to a person and the world.
  • Makes sincerity the bond between a person's character and the order of the universe.
  • Its spiritual depth made it a favorite of later Confucian philosophers.

Behind the book

  • By Confucius's grandson

    Tradition credits Zisi, Confucius's grandson, though scholars think parts were added later.

  • Once a chapter

    Like the Great Learning, it began as a chapter of the Book of Rites.

  • The Unwobbling Pivot

    The poet Ezra Pound published his own translation under that title in 1947.

Translated by James Legge 1861