The Doctrine of the Mean Passage 8

English: James Legge (1861), The Doctrine of the Mean, The Chinese Classics vol. 1 (1861); romanization modernized on Wikisource — public domain. Chinese: Chinese text from the Wikisource bilingual edition.

Character glossary

• 子zison, child; seed, egg; fruit; small thin
• 曰yuēto speak; to say
• 回huíto return, to turn around; a time
• 之zhīmarks preceding phrase as modifier of fo
• 為wèito do, to act; to handle, to govern; to
• 人rénman, person; people
• 也yěalso, too
• 擇zéto select, to choose
• 乎hūinterrogative or exclamatory final parti
• 中zhōngcentral; center, middle; amidst; to hit
• 庸yōngusual, common, ordinary, mediocre
• 得déto obtain, to get, to acquire; suitable,
• 一yīone; a, an; alone
• 善shàngood, virtuous, charitable, kind
• 則zérule, law, regulation; grades
• 拳quánfist; various forms of boxing
• 服fúclothes; to dress, to wear; to take medi
• 膺yīngbreast, chest; to bear, to undertake
• 而érand, and then, and yet; but
• 弗fúnot, negative
• 失shīto lose; to make a mistake, to neglect
• 矣yǐparticle of completed action

Similar passages

• Zhuangzi Robber Chê
• Zhuangzi Man Among Men
• The Doctrine of the Mean Passage 7
• Zhuangzi Hsü Wu Kuei
• Mencius 7A.16
• Zhuangzi On Declining Power

Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.