Q0368

“Not leaning is called the Mean; not changing is called Constancy. The…” — Zhu Xi (Commentary on the Doctrine of the…)

Verified English quotation. Primary source: Commentary on the Doctrine of the Mean. Theme: meaning.

English

Not leaning is called the Mean; not changing is called Constancy. The Mean is the right Way of the world; Constancy is its settled principle.
Thinker Zhu Xi
School Neo-Confucianism
Source Commentary on the Doctrine of the Mean
Theme Meaning
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source and attribution

The archive attributes this English wording to Commentary on the Doctrine of the Mean and files it under Neo-Confucianism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

About Zhu Xi

Zhu Xi (1130–1200) was the Southern Song synthesizer of Neo-Confucianism whose commentaries on the Four Books became imperial orthodoxy for centuries. He organized cosmology of li (principle) and qi (vital stuff) and built academy pedagogy.

How to read this passage

Across 4 recurring voices here (notably Viktor Frankl and Ludwig Wittgenstein), meaning is framed through Logotherapy and Analytic Philosophy. Some passages define meaning; others warn how it fails; still others relocate it inside habit, community, or language. This passage enters that discussion through meaning, morality.

Concepts in this quote

Meaning
Meaning appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat meaning as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.
Morality
Morality in philosophy concerns right and wrong, obligation, and the standards by which we judge persons and acts.

How to cite this quotation

APA: Zhu Xi. (n.d.). Not leaning is called the Mean; not changing is called Constancy. The Mean is the right Way of the world; Constancy is its settled principle. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0368

MLA: Zhu Xi. “Not leaning is called the Mean; not changing….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0368.

Chicago: Zhu Xi. “Not leaning is called the Mean; not changing….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0368.

Frequently asked questions

What is the source of the quotation “Not leaning is called the Mean; not changing…”?

The passage is attributed to Zhu Xi, Commentary on the Doctrine of the Mean. The archive attributes this English wording to Commentary on the Doctrine of the Mean and files it under Neo-Confucianism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

What does Zhu Xi mean by meaning?

Across 4 recurring voices here (notably Viktor Frankl and Ludwig Wittgenstein), meaning is framed through Logotherapy and Analytic Philosophy. Some passages define meaning; others warn how it fails; still others relocate it inside habit, community, or language. This passage enters that discussion through meaning, morality.

Same thinker

More from Zhu Xi

  1. I ask the channel how it can be so clear — because fresh water keeps flowing from its source.
  2. The clearer the knowing, the more earnest the practice; the more earnest the practice, the clearer the knowing.
  3. To extend knowledge lies in investigating things: if one wishes to extend one's knowledge, one must approach things and exhaust their principle.

All quotations by Zhu Xi

Same theme

More on meaning

  1. Virtue is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean relative to us.
  2. There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.
  3. Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.
  4. Those who have a 'why' to live can bear with almost any 'how'.
  5. We feel that even if all possible scientific questions are answered, the problems of life have still not been touched at all.

Browse the meaning theme