《中庸》是儒家经典的《四书》之一。原是《小戴礼记》第三十一篇,作者现学术界普遍认为是子思及其弟子多人所作。也有学者认为可能是由儒家学者在战国写成。宋朝学者对《中庸》非常推崇,而将其从《礼记》中抽出独立成书,朱熹则将其与《论语》、《孟子》、《大学》合编为《四书》。《中庸》在字面上的解释即是“中道及常理”之意。而执中又当求“中和”,在一个人还没有表现出喜怒哀乐时的平静情绪为“中”,表现出情绪之后经过调整而符合常理为“和”。其主旨在于修养人性。
本书包括208个单句。
The Doctrine of the Mean is one of the four classics of the Confucian classics. Originally the thirty-first article of "Little Dai Li Ji", the author is generally considered by the academic community to be made by many people and their disciples. Some scholars believe that it may have been written by Confucian scholars in the Warring States. Scholars of the Song Dynasty highly praised the Doctrine of the Mean, and extracted it from the Book of Rites, and Zhu Xi co-edited it with The Analects of Confucius, Mencius and University. The literal interpretation of "The Doctrine of the Mean" is the meaning of "middle way and common sense." In the middle of the process, he also seeks "neutralization". When a person has not shown the emotions of emotions, he is "middle". After expressing emotions, he is adjusted to conform to common sense as "harmony." Its main purpose is to cultivate humanity.