ABSTRACT
It is said in the Great Learning, “The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the empire first ordered well their own States.” Again, “One’s State being rightly governed, the whole world is pacified.” The State is to the empire as the individual is to the family. If its component parts are perfect, the whole cannot be other than perfect. This is called “giving attention to what is radical (derived from the root).”
Mencius said, “People have this common saying: ‘The empire, the State, the family.’ The root of the empire is in the State. The root of the State is in the family. The root of the family is in the person.’”
