These three never claimed originality, seeking only to restore to man the knowledge that he is an immortal soul, rooted in spirit or goodness and destined for godhood. Confucius came at a critical time for China. To restore China to its Golden Age, Confucius gave the formula for restoring harmony to the family of man. K'ung Fu-tse maintained that what the Great Learning teaches is to illustrate illustrious virtue, to renovate the people, and to rest in the highest excellence. . . . Things have their root and their completion.
Affairs have their end and their beginning.
To know what is first and what is last will lead near to what is taught in the Great Learning. From the emperor down to the mass of the people, all must consider the cultivation of the person the root of every thing besides. In itself it forms a fairly adequate and complete basis for the philosophy of Confucianism or Ju. From purity and innocence it must enter into the worlds of matter and learn all the lessons that life has to offer. By the light of intelligence and self-consciousness it must rise again to the divine state.