Q0464

“The great method of ordering the world lies in discerning the times…” — Wang Fuzhi (Du Tongjian Lun)

Verified English quotation. Primary source: Du Tongjian Lun. Theme: power.

English

The great method of ordering the world lies in discerning the times and gauging the situation.
Thinker Wang Fuzhi
School Neo-Confucianism
Source Du Tongjian Lun
Theme Power
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source and attribution

The archive attributes this English wording to Du Tongjian Lun 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 Wang Fuzhi

Wang Fuzhi (1619–1692) was a Ming–Qing Confucian philosopher who refused service to the Manchu Qing and wrote in seclusion. A fierce critic of Song–Ming metaphysical dualisms he judged empty, he emphasized concrete historical qi and practical learning.

How to read this passage

Philosophers analyze domination, authority, freedom, and the micro-politics of everyday life. Power can enable justice or crush it. This passage enters that discussion through power.

Concepts in this quote

Power
Power is the capacity to affect others and to shape what counts as possible—central to politics and ethics.

How to cite this quotation

APA: Wang Fuzhi. (n.d.). The great method of ordering the world lies in discerning the times and gauging the situation. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0464

MLA: Wang Fuzhi. “The great method of ordering the world lies….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0464.

Chicago: Wang Fuzhi. “The great method of ordering the world lies….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0464.

Frequently asked questions

What is the source of the quotation “The great method of ordering the world lies…”?

The passage is attributed to Wang Fuzhi, Du Tongjian Lun. The archive attributes this English wording to Du Tongjian Lun 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 Wang Fuzhi mean by power?

Philosophers analyze domination, authority, freedom, and the micro-politics of everyday life. Power can enable justice or crush it. This passage enters that discussion through power.

Same thinker

More from Wang Fuzhi

  1. All under heaven is nothing but concrete things (qi). The Way is the Way of things; one cannot reverse this and call things merely vessels of an abstract Way.
  2. Habit and nature come to completion together and transform with each other.

All quotations by Wang Fuzhi

Same theme

More on power

  1. It is through wonder that people both now begin and first began to philosophize.
  2. A person's character is their destiny.
  3. What is opposed brings together; from what differs comes the finest harmony.
  4. Death is nothing to us: for what has been dissolved has no sensation, and what has no sensation is nothing to us.
  5. Pleasure is the beginning and end of the happy life — not the pleasures of profligates, but freedom from pain in the body and from disturbance in the soul.

Browse the power theme