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Great Books Club: The Great Learning

Meeting schedule and resources for book club discussion of the Confucian classic, The Great Learning

Brief Intro to The Great Learning

Synopsis of The Great Learning

The Great Learning is a guide for moral self-cultivation. According to it, the key to moral self-cultivation is "the investigation of things" (i.e., learning). Through the investigation of things, you come to understand the principles behind things, which allows you to better comprehend the world.

Through this moral self-cultivation, one's li (principle) and qi (psychophysical stuff) are in harmony, leading to consistent moral behavior. Though a relatively short work, The Great Learning was prescribed as the first of the Confucian Classics that would-be scholars should read.

Click the link below to download an English translation:

The Great Learning trans. by Charles A. Muller

Additional Resources