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To Confucianism, learning is the way to cultivate oneself to achieve moral integrity. The usual meaning of the term is to acquire knowledge and understanding, but for Confucianism it focuses more on the cultivation of moral and ethical qualities to achieve personal growth. Through learning classics and rites, and following the practices of sages, a person is able to cultivate and improve his moral standards and thus become a person of ideal qualities. Daoists, on the other hand, are against learning, and Laozi said that “fine-sounding arguments” only cause unnecessary worries, and can disrupt a person’s natural state of mind.
The concept means different things in different contexts. In terms of institutions of learning, it refers to the institution of highest learning, the imperial academy, established by the state, which is different from local schools. When it comes to content of learning, it refers to what a complete man should learn, namely, general rules and principles on governance and human relationship, which are different from that of xiaoxue (小学 Little Learning), namely, learning of words and specific rites or skills. In terms of objective, great learning aims to help students develop sound personality and moral integrity and thus make them qualified for exercising governance.
Teachers and students improve each other. The ancient Chinese realized that teaching is not just a matter of teachers influencing students, but a two-way process of mutual interaction. In this process, teachers and students continuously make their own progress and improvements. It embodies the view that both teachers and students can benefit from their interactions, which is quite similar to the views of modern education.
The term refers to learning for the purpose of self-cultivation. Confucian scholars view learning as a means of improving our moral life. By studying the classics and rules of etiquette, and by learning from the sages, we may constantly improve our morality in order to develop an ideal character. Therefore, learning is a process for self-cultivation and is practiced for our own good. The pursuit of learning is not to make a show of our knowledge or virtuous conduct in return for benefit.
Xi (习) means to develop a good command of something through frequent practices. Repeated practice is an important part of learning, which is necessary for acquiring knowledge and skills. In Confucian thinking, xi refers mostly to regular observance of ethics, rites and moral requirements. This will develop habits of speech and action required of a person of moral integrity.
The term means the ability to reflect and evaluate. Confucian scholars considered this a unique quality of the human mind. By reflecting, a person will keep himself from being led astray or getting confused by what he sees or hears. Through reflecting, a person will discover the foundation of morality. This leads to understanding the way of heaven, and eventually, the essence of being human. Without reflecting, humans will lose their individual consciousness and independence.
The term literally means to tie one’s hair on the house beam and jab one’s side with an awl. The idiom comes from the ancient story about how assiduously people studied. Sun Jing of the Eastern Han (25-220) would incessantly read books from dawn to dusk alone. When he felt tired or fatigued, he would tie his hair to the beam of the house, so that the moment he began to nod off, his head would be jerked back and this would immediately rouse him, and he could continue reading. During the Warring States Period, Su Qin (?-284 BC) would use an awl to jab at his own thigh, whenever he felt sleepy to make sure he stayed awake and lucid enough to be able to continue reading. Later, people started to tell these stories in order to encourage young people to study hard. Today, this kind of extreme measures which are physically harmful are no longer encouraged. However, this kind of assiduous spirit in the pursuit of knowledge is still highly lauded.
The term means to accumulate as much as possible but to release a little at a time. This often refers to the process of scholarly research or artistic creation, in which one should first extensively absorb the knowledge and results of others to acquire a wealth of knowledge and lay a solid foundation. On this basis, one is engaged in further scholarly studies or artistic creation, attempting to make new accomplishments. It can also refer to a country or a business which, after a long period of building up its strength, begins to gradually unleash its potential and ability to innovate and proceed to break new ground. The message of this expression is that one should never seek quick results; rather, one should pay attention to accumulating knowledge and making full preparations before making advances.
It was thought in ancient China that a person matured through five stages: broad study for collecting information and acquiring knowledge, close examination for identifying problems and resolving doubts, careful reflection for absorbing and mastering knowledge, clear discrimination for developing concepts and reaching conclusions, and earnest practice for putting knowledge into practice and developing character. These stages can be roughly divided into three areas: learning, reflection, and practice. “Careful reflection and clear discrimination” describes the stage of reflection between learning and practice. It can also be said that study and reflection on the one hand and study and practice on the other complement each other, while reflection is a deepening and heightening of learning, a prerequisite for practice, and a key link between learning and practice.
This term means to review what has been learned and to gain new understanding and new insights. It also means to obtain guidance in the present moment by recalling the past. Wen (温) means to review； gu (故) means knowledge that has been acquired in the past； xin (新) means new and unexplored knowledge. Our predecessors had two main approaches to interpreting this term. According to one approach, reviewing the knowledge acquired in the past and understanding new knowledge should be understood as two actions taking place at the same time. In other words, one gains new knowledge in the course of reviewing the old. According to the other, reviewing the knowledge acquired in the past should be viewed as the basis and precondition for understanding new knowledge. Without reviewing, one would not be able to understand new knowledge. Furthermore, the new knowledge is a development of the old on the basis of rejecting stale and outdated ideas of the past. Today, what this term offers is more than a simple methodology for studying, but rather a fundamental mechanism for the development of an individual, an enterprise, an organization, or even a country. The term expresses a dialectical logic between the old and new, past and present, known and unknown, and inheritance and innovation.
“Cultivating oneself” means taking pains to elevate one’s talent and virtue constantly to achieve perfection, thus inwardly becoming a sage. “Benefiting others” means displaying one’s own talent and virtue to make contributions to society and benefit others, thus outwardly becoming a person like a king. This was what Confucius（551-479 BC） meant by a “man of virtue” and is also a simple expression of the Confucian school’s notion of rule by virtue.
This term expresses the idea that giving away a fish is not as good as teaching one how to fish. The meaning is that rather than giving something away it is better to teach the method of obtaining it so that people can get what they need through their own efforts. It implies that once an objective is established, the method of achieving it becomes most important, and that the effective way of helping and managing people in the long term is to encourage them to be self-supporting.
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