The Four Sentences of Hengqu are Zhang Zai’s famous sayings.
1. Original text.
"Hengqu's Four Sentences" comes from Zhang Zai's "Hengqu Quotations". The original text is as follows: "Establish a heart for the heaven and earth, establish a destiny for the people, carry on the unique knowledge for the saints, and create peace for all generations."
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2. Interpretation of the four sentences of Hengqu.
1. "Establish a heart for heaven and earth." Heaven and earth have no heart, but humans have a heart. Human heart is what enables people to be born with the heart of a benevolent person who loves and helps others, and a saint who is righteous and righteous. heart.
2. “Establishing a destiny for the sake of the people” directly comes from Mencius’ thought of “establishing a destiny”. Through self-cultivation and education, if one can finally reach a state where no matter how long or short a person's life is, he can maintain his own integrity and integrity, then this individual life can be said to have settled down and settled down.
3. "To carry forward the unique learning to the saints", so the "going to the saints" are the ancient Confucians represented by Confucius and Mencius;
4. "To create peace for all generations" expresses the eternal political ideal of the Confucians of the Song Dynasty and also of the Confucians of the Song Dynasty.
Introduction to Zhang Zai:
Zhang Zai, courtesy name Zihou, was a great Confucian in the Northern Song Dynasty, a philosopher, one of the founders of Neo-Confucianism, the founder of "Guan Xue", a branch of Neo-Confucianism, a sage, and a worshiper. No. 38 in the west veranda of Confucius Temple. His ancestral home is Daliang (now Kaifeng, Henan), and he moved to Hengqu Town, Fengxiang Prefecture (now Mei County, Shaanxi). Scholars call him Mr. Hengqu. In the second year of Jiayou's reign, Renzong of the Song Dynasty, he became a Jinshi. He was successively awarded Chongwen College Book and learned about Taichang Liyuan.
Later, his younger brother, the censor Zhang Jian, was demoted for opposing Wang Anshi's reform, and Hengqu resigned. After returning home, he focused on reading and lecturing, and founded "Guan Xue", which became famous for a while. Song Shenzong died of illness in Tongguan in the tenth year of Xining.
In the thirteenth year of Jiading in the Southern Song Dynasty, Ningzong of the Song Dynasty granted the posthumous title "Ming". In the first year of Chunyou of Song Lizong (1241), he was granted the title of Yibo and worshiped in the Confucius Temple. In the ninth year of Jiajing of Ming Dynasty (1530), he was renamed Xianru Zhang. son. When he was young, he read a lot of books and had great ambitions to become an official. However, with the encouragement of Fan Zhongyan, he devoted himself to academic research. After visiting Buddha and Lao Lao, he finally formed his own unique Confucianism.