ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the full development of the Confucian concept of discernment as the “Timely Mean” in the Doctrine of the Mean, the most important single text dealing with discernment in Confucianism. Moreover, the Doctrine of the Mean clarified and confirmed the religious basis of human morality and inner cultivation by pointing out that the stillness of the mean before emotions arise is the inborn state of every human mind/heart endowed by Heaven. This religious conviction is the development of the phrase in the Book of Poetry, one of the Five Classics of Confucianism. While the Great Learning suggests a process of self-cultivation, the Doctrine of the Mean presents a religious and ethical vision how to unite the way of Human with the way of Heaven. The Doctrine of the Mean sees that humans should participate in the transformation process of the universe in order to realize their own humanity fully.
