Q0367

The Doctrine of the Mean

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

What Heaven mandates is called nature; following nature is called the Way; cultivating the Way is called teaching.
Thinker The Doctrine of the Mean
School Confucianism
Source The Doctrine of the Mean
Theme Nature
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with The Doctrine of the Mean, within the tradition of Confucianism. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of nature, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In The Doctrine of the Mean's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: The Doctrine of the Mean. (n.d.). What Heaven mandates is called nature; following nature is called the Way; cultivating the Way is called teaching. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0367

MLA: The Doctrine of the Mean. “What Heaven mandates is called nature; following nature….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0367.

Chicago: The Doctrine of the Mean. “What Heaven mandates is called nature; following nature….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0367.

Same thinker

More from The Doctrine of the Mean

  1. Study extensively, inquire carefully, think prudently, discriminate clearly, and practice earnestly.
  2. Sincerity is the Way of Heaven; making oneself sincere is the way of human beings.
  3. Before joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure are issued, that is called the Mean; when issued and all hit due measure, that is called Harmony.
  4. The noble person is cautious about what is not seen, apprehensive about what is not heard…therefore watchful when alone.

All quotations by The Doctrine of the Mean

Same theme

More on nature

  1. Upon those who step into the same rivers, different and different waters flow.
  2. Nothing can be created from nothing by divine agency.
  3. God, or Nature.
  4. [In the state of nature, the life of man is] solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
  5. Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe…: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.

Browse the nature theme