The Zhong Yong is one of the most important classics in China. For a long time it has been treated as a doctrine that teaches us to follow our nature (xing) as endowed by Heaven (tian). This interpretation of the Zhong Yong has been an important source of the development of metaphysics in Neo Confucianism. However, does this interpretation help us to understand the true meaning of the Zhong Yong? Can we ever know what in particular is endowed by Heaven? In this thesis we will see that most of the past interpretations of the Zhong Yong do not make things clearer. Furthermore, by seeking for a new, more apprehensible interpretation, we will find that xing was primarily seen as a question in the Zhong Yong instead of something present at hand that we can follow. The proposition of this bas...[ Read more ]

The Zhong Yong is one of the most important classics in China. For a long time it has been treated as a doctrine that teaches us to follow our nature (xing) as endowed by Heaven (tian). This interpretation of the Zhong Yong has been an important source of the development of metaphysics in Neo Confucianism. However, does this interpretation help us to understand the true meaning of the Zhong Yong? Can we ever know what in particular is endowed by Heaven? In this thesis we will see that most of the past interpretations of the Zhong Yong do not make things clearer. Furthermore, by seeking for a new, more apprehensible interpretation, we will find that xing was primarily seen as a question in the Zhong Yong instead of something present at hand that we can follow. The proposition of this basic question of xing is the true value of the Zhong Yong.