Page 71 - 2022(1) International Confusion Studies

Int. Confucian Stud. 2022; 1(1): 64–80

Jiantao Ren*
“Self-Cultivation as the Root of All”—The
Individual in the Recursive Process of

“Ensuring Peace for All Under Heaven,
Good State Governance and Regulation
of Family Affairs, and Self-Cultivation”

https://doi.org/10.1515/icos-2022-2005

Abstract: Today, “regulation of family affairs, good state governance and
ensuring peace to all under heaven” has become a fixed-format narrative through
which China remains attached to its traditions. However, most such expressions
digress from the original context of The Great Learning and so have become a way
of conveying modern and international ideas instead. “Regulation of family
affairs, good state governance and ensuring peace to all under heaven” in the
context of The Great Learning are the last three of the “eight essential principles
(studying things, acquiring knowledge, being sincere in thought, rectifying one’s
heart/mind, cultivating oneself, regulating one’s family affairs, governing the
state well, and ensuring peace to all under heaven),” and seemingly separate
from the other five. However, only by connecting the eight principles together,
both progressively and recursively, can one accurately and fully understand the
meaning of the last three (“regulation of family affairs, good state governance
and ensuring peace to all under heaven”). They are listed in a progressive order
but only by going backward to “studying things” can we truly understand the
profound meaning of the “complete eight.” In these two-way orders, “self-
cultivation” by the individual is the key link. Such an understanding helps to
focus on the basic collectivist ideas of Confucian thought, and to highlight its
modern significance.

Article note: This is an abridged version of the article which was first published in Chinese in
Issue 2, Volume 1 of International Studies on Confucianism (《国际儒学》) in 2021. The English
version was translated by Weidong Wang.

*Corresponding author: Jiantao Ren, School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing,
China, E-mail: rjthxx@sina.com

Open Access. © 2022 the author(s), published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.