Doctrine of the Mean
E118153
The Doctrine of the Mean is a classical Confucian text that teaches moral self-cultivation through balance, harmony, and the pursuit of virtuous moderation in all aspects of life.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Doctrine of the Mean canonical | 17 |
| Doctrine of the Mean (Zhongyong) | 1 |
| The Doctrine of the Mean | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1007413 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Doctrine of the Mean Context triple: [Confucianism, scripture, Doctrine of the Mean]
-
A.
Doctrine of Virtue
The Doctrine of Virtue is the second part of Immanuel Kant’s *Metaphysics of Morals*, presenting his systematic account of ethical duties and moral character.
-
B.
Nicomachean Ethics
Nicomachean Ethics is Aristotle’s foundational philosophical treatise on the nature of virtue, happiness, and the good life.
-
C.
The Conduct of Life
The Conduct of Life is a collection of essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson that explores practical and philosophical questions about how to live ethically and purposefully in the modern world.
-
D.
Stoicism
Stoicism is an ancient Greek and Roman philosophical school that teaches cultivating virtue, rationality, and inner resilience to achieve tranquility amid life's hardships.
-
E.
The System of Ethics
The System of Ethics is a foundational philosophical work by Johann Gottlieb Fichte that systematically develops his idealist moral philosophy and theory of human freedom.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Doctrine of the Mean Target entity description: The Doctrine of the Mean is a classical Confucian text that teaches moral self-cultivation through balance, harmony, and the pursuit of virtuous moderation in all aspects of life.
-
A.
Doctrine of Virtue
The Doctrine of Virtue is the second part of Immanuel Kant’s *Metaphysics of Morals*, presenting his systematic account of ethical duties and moral character.
-
B.
Nicomachean Ethics
Nicomachean Ethics is Aristotle’s foundational philosophical treatise on the nature of virtue, happiness, and the good life.
-
C.
The Conduct of Life
The Conduct of Life is a collection of essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson that explores practical and philosophical questions about how to live ethically and purposefully in the modern world.
-
D.
Stoicism
Stoicism is an ancient Greek and Roman philosophical school that teaches cultivating virtue, rationality, and inner resilience to achieve tranquility amid life's hardships.
-
E.
The System of Ethics
The System of Ethics is a foundational philosophical work by Johann Gottlieb Fichte that systematically develops his idealist moral philosophy and theory of human freedom.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Chinese philosophical text
ⓘ
Confucian classic ⓘ Four Books of Confucianism ⓘ |
| associatedWith | Confucianism ⓘ |
| attributedTo |
Kong Ji
ⓘ
Zisi ⓘ |
| centralConcept |
the Mean
ⓘ
zhongyong ⓘ |
| commentedOnBy | Zhu Xi ⓘ |
| culturalContext |
Chinese philosophy
ⓘ
East Asian Confucian tradition ⓘ |
| defines | the Mean as appropriate degree in feelings and actions ⓘ |
| emphasizes |
conformity to the Mandate of Heaven
ⓘ
gradual moral cultivation ⓘ inner equilibrium before external action ⓘ the role of the exemplary person ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
balance
ⓘ
harmony ⓘ moderation ⓘ moral self-cultivation ⓘ virtue ⓘ |
| genre | didactic prose ⓘ |
| hasConcept |
equilibrium (zhong)
ⓘ
harmony (he) ⓘ sincerity (cheng) ⓘ the exemplary person (junzi) ⓘ |
| historicalUse | moral education in imperial China ⓘ |
| includedIn | Imperial examination curriculum ⓘ |
| influenced | Neo-Confucianism ⓘ |
| language | Classical Chinese ⓘ |
| partOf |
Four Books
ⓘ
Sishu ⓘ |
| philosophicalTheme |
cosmic harmony
ⓘ
ethical moderation ⓘ ritual propriety ⓘ self-cultivation ⓘ sincerity ⓘ |
| region | China ⓘ |
| relatedTo | Confucius ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
Analects
ⓘ
Great Learning ⓘ Mencius ⓘ |
| teaches |
alignment with the Way
ⓘ
avoidance of extremes ⓘ cultivation of equilibrium ⓘ cultivation of sincerity ⓘ harmonious social relations ⓘ |
| timeOfCompilation |
Warring States period (approximate)
ⓘ
linked to:
Warring States period
|
| traditionalTitle | Zhongyong ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Doctrine of the Mean Description of subject: The Doctrine of the Mean is a classical Confucian text that teaches moral self-cultivation through balance, harmony, and the pursuit of virtuous moderation in all aspects of life.
Referenced by (19)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.