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BOOK XXXIX. TÅ HSIO
OR
THE GREAT LEARNING ?.
1. What the Great Learning teaches, is to illustrate illustrious virtue; to love the people ?; and to rest in the highest excellence.
The point where to rest being known, the object of pursuit is then determined ; and, that being determined, a calm unperturbedness may be attained to. To that calmness there will succeed a tranquil repose. In that repose there will be careful deliberation, and that deliberation will be followed by the attainment (of the desired end).
Things have their root and their branches; affairs have their end and their beginning. To know what is first and what is last will lead near to what is taught in the Great Learning).
2. The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the kingdom, first ordered well their states. Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they
See the introductory notice, vol. xxvii, pp. 53, 54. · The text of the Tà Hsio, since the labours of Ka Hsî upon it, reads here—'to renovate,' instead of 'to love,' the people. Ka adopted the alteration from Po-shun, called also Ming-tao, one of his
masters,' the two brothers Khăng; but there is really no authority for it.
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