Great Learning - The Great Learning and Education in China

The Great Learning and Education in China

The Great Learning as we know it today is the result of multiple revisions and commentaries by a number of Confucian and Neo-Confucian scholars. The Great Learning, along with the Doctrine of the Mean had their beginnings as chapters within the Book of Rites. The Da Xue, along with the Doctrine of the Mean were removed from the Book of Rites and designated as separate, and equally significant, works by the Neo-Confucian scholar Zhu Xi (Chu Hsi). In the winter of 1190 C.E. Zhu Xi published the Four Masters (Ssu-tzu), a collection of the Great Learning, Doctrine of the Mean, the Mencius and the Analects (Gardner, Principle and Pedagogy, 64). These four texts soon became the initial basis of study in the Chinese imperial examination system. Zhu Xi was prompted to refine the Da Xue and incorporate it into the curriculum as he felt that the previously utilized Classics were lengthy and too difficult to comprehend by the common individual to be used as an educational foundation for Confucian thought. (Gardner, Principle and Pedagogy, 64). Utilizing the much shorter and more comprehensible Four Books would allow Zhu to reach a much greater audience (Gardner, Principle and Pedagogy, 63). To aid in comprehension of the Da Xue, he spent much of his life studying the Great Learning and published a series of commentaries explaining the principle teachings of the text. The Da Xue (Ta Hsueh) itself gets its name from "tu-jen chih hsueh," referring to the education of adults. Unlike many scholars before him, Zhu Xi presents the Great Leaning as the Way of self cultivation and governance that is to be studied by all people, not only those in, or seeking, political office ( Gardner, Confucian Commentary,192).