“The term zhongyong is literally ‘centrality and universality.’ According to Zhu Xi, it means neither one-sided nor extreme but the ordinary principle of the Mean. He accepted the account that Kongzi’s grandson Zisi was the author. Both this text and the Great Learning constitute a chapter in the Book of Rites and were selected to form the ‘Four Books.’ Both became Classics and exerted tremendous influence in China in the last eight hundred years. The work is translated below in full.”