Greatest Learning Da Xue 大學: Translation and Interpretation of the Text in the Light of Early Confucian Philosophy
Abstract
The article contains translation of classical Chinese text Greatest Learning Da Xue 大學 and the interpretation of important terms such as de 德 and gewu 格物. Da Xue is a part of ancient Chinese texts Liji 禮記 but the reinterpretation of the text became later a basis of neo-confucian philosophy. I argue that Da Xue is a pragmatic manual for an individual who firstly wants to cultivate himself and being cultivated is able to change the world into confucian utopia. Hence the phrase gewu does not have a meaning of “investigating things” in order to understand li 理 but “understanding the order of things that come”.
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