How to Understand Ge Shi, Zhi Zhi, Sincerity, Righteousness, Cultivating the Body, Aligning the Family, Ruling the Country, and Leveling the World

The Four Books? University" original text: "In ancient times, those who wished to make the world bright and virtuous first ruled their country; those who wished to rule their country first aligned their families; those who wished to align their families first cultivated their bodies; those who wished to cultivate their bodies first corrected their minds; those who wished to correct their minds first honored their minds; those who wished to honor their minds first attained knowledge, and the attainment of knowledge was in the grasping of things." "The object is grasped before the knowledge, the knowledge before the sincerity of intention, the sincerity of intention before the correctness of heart, the correctness of heart before the cultivation of body, the cultivation of body before the unification of the family, the unification of the family before the rule of the country, the rule of the country before the peace of the world."

Ge-thing: to exhaust the truth of things or to correct one's behavior.

Zhi Zhi Zhi: zhi: seek to obtain; zhi: knowledge. It means "to acquire knowledge".

Sincerity: sincerity. To make one's thoughts sincere.

Correct Mind: To correct the mind.

Cultivating one's body: in the olden days, to try to improve one's moral character.

Qi Jia (齐家): to straighten one's housekeeping.

Governing the country: managing the country.

Peace the world: to pacify the rebellions in the four directions (to realize the unification of the motherland).

Getting Things and Knowing is an important concept in ancient Chinese Confucianism, originating from the eight items in the Rituals of the Great Learning--Getting Things, Getting to Know, Sincerity, Correcting the Heart, Cultivating the Body, Aligning the Family, Ruling the Country, and Leveling the World--that states, "If one wants to be sincere in one's intention, one must first get to know. To realize knowledge, one must first acquire knowledge. When the things are in order, the knowledge will be realized, and when the knowledge is realized, the intention will be sincere". However, this is the only paragraph in The Great Learning that mentions "to acquire knowledge through material formation", without any subsequent explanation, and there is no ancient pre-Qin text that has ever used the terms "to acquire knowledge through material formation" and "to acquire knowledge" in reference to their meanings, thus making the true meaning of "to acquire knowledge through material formation" a difficult mystery in Confucian thought. The fifth edition of the Modern Chinese Dictionary, released in 2005, interprets "Ge Shi Zhi Zhi Zhi" as "to summarize rational knowledge by investigating the principles and laws of things".