ABSTRACT
In the Analects, the teachings of Confucius are summarized by Zengzi with the following statement: “All that the master teaches amounts to nothing more than dutifulness (zhong) tempered by understanding (shu)” (4:15). 1 When Zigong asks Confucius for one word to guide his students, Confucius replies “Is it not ‘understanding’ (shu)?” (15:24). 2 In the West, a lot of attention has been devoted to these passages as evidence that Confucius espoused a version of the “Golden Rule” prescribed by Jesus in the Gospels. Under those readings, shu is treated as equivalent to the moral duties associated with that rule. 3 But there is another connection that has been made by Western philosophers based upon these two passages.
