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The Great Learning

Confucian tradition (translated by James Legge)

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Founder connections

  • Chung Ju-yungSon-reported childhood study
    Chung Mong-joon’s 2025 scholarship speech names 대학 among the books his father studied in the village school. This is a reported study connection, not an exact edition or a recommendation.
    Source

Summary

The Great Learning is a short Confucian text that links personal cultivation with the ordering of family and public life. It moves from examining and understanding things toward intention, conduct and wider responsibilities.

James Legge’s translation includes the compact text and its traditional explanatory passages. The work offers an ethical sequence for reflection; it is not evidence that personal virtue alone can solve every problem of government or organization.

  • SourceThe Great Learning — checked content · The Great Learning / Ta Hsüeh, original translated text and numbered commentary sections; work-level classical attribution, not a sole modern author claim.

Why read it Our view

Read it slowly and trace how each proposed step depends on the previous one. Ask where understanding, intention and action separate in your own life. Keep its historical claims about family and government open to scrutiny rather than treating them as a modern operating formula.