Chinese Classics ⁽⁵⁾

Little biographical material survives about Hong Yingming, the author of Caigentan (Vegetable Root Discourse). All we know is that his courtesy name was Zicheng and his hao (literary name) was Huanchu Daoren, meaning "the returning-to-the-origin wayfarer." His given name and courtesy name were probably taken…

The Confucian classic Daxue (Great Learning) puts forward the life ideal of "if it is made fresh each day, renew it day by day, day after day"—a spirit of constant self-renewal. In the Three Kingdoms period, Lü Meng said another line: "When a scholar has…

The heart that loves praise and hates blame is the heart of the vulgar man who frets over gain and loss. If one cannot break through this barrier, all one's learning and talent merely serve to deceive the age and steal a reputation. Zhiyuan's note:…

Because social change is too rapid and of too great an amplitude, most modern people cannot adapt to the fast-paced life of modern society and develop various psychological problems to varying degrees; in severe cases they fall into spiritual predicament. There is now a view…

Mr. Feng Youlan said that Western philosophy is a philosophy of negation, whereas Eastern philosophy is a philosophy of the negation of the negation. Eastern philosophy stands to Western philosophy as an elder to a youth: it is a philosophy of a higher order. This…