Reading of Chu Hsi's Excerpt

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• published: 01 Aug 2012
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Brenna Kelley World Civ I The Great Learning The Great Learning, an excerpt spoken by Chu Hsi is very interesting considering the time frame it came from. Back then many people believed to make a change you need to take charge and rule over everyone and everything the people of their community believed in. That is how many rulers were. But Chu Hsi is different. He understood that what the people believed in mattered. For example when he says in this excerpt, "When the personal life is cultivated, the family will be regulated. When the family is regulated, the state will be in order. When the state is in order, there will be peace throughout the world." Chu Hsi knew that to make change you needed to start with the people to the right and left of you and expand. He knew he could not just set rules for an entire community and for them to work and the community to be peaceful. He believed in helping one person that led to them helping their family, which led to happier families and a more peaceful community. This is clear when he says "there is never a case when a root is in disorder and yet the branches are in order." That is a perfect example of what Chu Hsi believed in worked for communities overall. He knew that by starting small you can make big changes to an entire community which would as he believed lead to a more peaceful world overall. He also believed in not taking your anger towards one person out on everyone. Which is evident towards the end of this excerpt. When Chu Hsi says "What a man dislikes in his superiors, let him not show it in dealing with his inferiors. What he dislikes in those in front of him let him not show it in preceding those who are behind him. What he likes in those behind him, let him not show it in following those in front of him." He means if you see someone acting a way you do not appreciate and that upsets you, don't show to everyone around you that you are upset. I overall think that everything Chu Hsi had to say was very true. I believe the same as Chu His in that to have a peaceful world you need to start with having peace people and peaceful families which lead to peaceful communities and overall a peaceful world. I also agree with what he says about if you do not like what you see next to you, do not show that to the person on the other side of you. I do not think truer words have been spoken. This excerpt reveals that the world it comes from is an equal one, where everyone has a say and helps create the peaceful community that everyone essentially wants. This is the world that everyone strives for throughout history. This excerpt reminds me of my work. I am an infant teacher at a local school and my director believes that to have a smoothly run school you need to have good teachers that love their jobs. With good teachers with come happy children and happy classrooms, happy classrooms lead to a happy and peaceful school. This is a lot like what Chu Hsi is talking about in this excerpt, his people are my works teachers, and his families are my students, his community is my works classrooms, and his world is my works school.