Kimi at 13:16, 29 October 2026

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	=== Key Terms ===		=== Key Terms ===
	[[World System]] >{{#ask:[[Is a key term::World System]]\|format=ul}}		[[World System]] >{{#ask:[[Is a key term::World System]]\|format=ul}}[[Human Development Framework]] >{{#ask:[[Is a key term::Human Development Framework]]\|format=ul}}
	[[Human Development Framework]] >{{#ask:[[Is a key term::Human Development Framework]]\|format=ul}}
			===List of Human Development Frameworks===

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			=== Confucian Terms ===
			{{#ask:[[Is a key term::Confucianism]]\|format=ul}}

	=== Syncretic Terms ===		=== Syncretic Terms ===

Kimi at 13:13, 29 October 2026

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	<blockquote class="definition">The '''Great Unity'''		<blockquote class="definition">
			The '''Great Unity''' (''datong'', 大同; also translated '''Grand Unity''' or '''Great Harmony''') is the Confucian vision of a public-minded, compassionate, and harmonious social order in which the common good prevails over selfishness, coercion, and conflict. Remembered as a Golden Age associated with the sage–kings, it also functions as an enduring social, moral, political, and religious ideal to be realised through virtue (''de''), humaneness (''ren''), and ritual propriety (''li'').<ref>Xinzhong Yao, ''An Introduction to Confucianism'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 169–70.</ref> The Great Unity is a close Confucian analogue to the LP conception of a [[Harmonic Social Structure]] and is related to the [[Good Society]] and [[Eupsychia]].
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	=== Key Terms ===		=== Key Terms ===
			[[World System]] >{{#ask:[[Is a key term::World System]]\|format=ul}}
			[[Human Development Framework]] >{{#ask:[[Is a key term::Human Development Framework]]\|format=ul}}

	~~[[World System]] >{{#ask:[[Is a key term::World System]]\|format~~=~~ul}}~~[[~~Human Development Framework~~]] >{{#ask:[[Is a ~~key~~ term::~~Human Development Framework~~]]\|format=ul}}		=== Syncretic Terms ===
			[[Harmonic Social Structure]] >{{#ask:[[Is a syncretic term::Harmonic Social Structure]]\|format=ul}}

	=== ~~List of Human Development Frameworks~~ ===		=== Related LP Terms ===
			* [[Good Society]]
	~~{{#ask:~~[[~~Is a::Connection Framework~~]]~~\|format=ul}}~~		* [[Eupsychia]]
			* [[Human Flourishing]]
			* [[Human Potential]]
			* [[Seven Essential Needs]]

	=== Confucian Terms ===		=== Confucian Terms ===
	{{#ask:[[Is a key term::Confucianism]]\|format=ul}}		{{#ask:[[Is a key term::Confucianism]]\|format=ul}}

	=== ~~Syncretic Terms~~ ===		== Notes ==

			=== The Classical Vision ===

			Yao presents the Great Unity as part of the Confucian response to disorder and conflict. It is believed to have existed during an ancient Golden Age under the sage–kings, but it is not merely a nostalgic image of the past. Each generation can seek to reclaim it through virtuous and humane government, ethical cultivation, and ritual propriety. Yao identifies its utopian articulation particularly with the ''Book of Rites'', including the chapters known as the ''[[Great Learning]]'', the ''Doctrine of the Mean'', and the ''Evolution of Ritual/Propriety'' (''Li Yun'').<ref>Yao, ''An Introduction to Confucianism'', 169–70.</ref>

			The Great Unity joins personal transformation to social transformation. A harmonious world depends upon cultivated persons, but cultivated persons also require social and political conditions that favour peace, justice, and humaneness (in LP terms [[Right Environment]].

			=== All under Heaven as a Public Concern ===

			A central expression of the Great Unity ideal is '''''tianxia wei gong''''' (天下为公), which Chen translates as “all under heaven belongs to the public.” The phrase expresses public-mindedness rather than the capture of [[Tianxia\|all under Heaven]] by a ruler, family, faction, or private interest. Chen explains that modern New Confucians regarded this ideal as an indigenous resource for democratic thinking, while acknowledging that its democratic institutional potential had not fully developed in traditional China.<ref>Yong Chen, ''Confucianism as Religion: Controversies and Consequences'' (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 156–57.</ref>

			The associated claim that sagehood is attainable by every person likewise supplies a basis for moral equality: political authority does not create a monopoly upon ethical agency or moral worth.<ref>Chen, ''Confucianism as Religion'', 156–57.</ref>

			=== Harmony Rather Than Uniformity ===

			The Great Unity belongs to the wider Confucian concern with '''[[He]]''', or harmony. In Yao’s account, harmony marks the convergence of the Way of Heaven and the way of humanity. It is not simply the absence of open conflict, but a condition in which human relationships, ethical conduct, and cosmic order support one another. Neo-Confucians extended this vision towards a world in which all human beings would be regarded as brothers and all things as companions.<ref>Yao, ''An Introduction to Confucianism'', 169–70.</ref>

			“Unity” should therefore not be read as compulsory sameness. Its Confucian context suggests differentiated relationships brought into harmony through humaneness, responsibility, and appropriate conduct.

			=== Later Reinterpretations ===

			The Great Unity has repeatedly been reinterpreted as a programme for social transformation. In the late Qing period, Kang Youwei and other reform-minded scholars presented Confucianism as a teaching capable of leading China from an “Age of Disorder” to an “Age of Great Unity.”<ref>Yao, ''An Introduction to Confucianism'', 249–50.</ref>

			In the twentieth century, the vision of a '''Grand Unity Society''' (''datong shehui'') informed modern political thought. Yao notes a particularly strong connection between this vision and Sun Zhongshan’s Three Principles of the People. He also argues that the Great Unity tradition gives Confucianism a form of historical optimism: although expressed as the memory of an ancient Golden Age, it can orient action towards a better human future.<ref>Yao, ''An Introduction to Confucianism'', 274–75, 281–82.</ref>

			=== LP Context ===

			The Great Unity is a strong syncretic analogue to a [[Harmonic Social Structure]] because it does not treat spiritual or ethical cultivation as purely private accomplishments. It imagines a transformed social order in which peace, public-mindedness, care, and harmonious relationships become normal features of collective life.

			It also parallels the reciprocal relationship between the [[Good Person]] and the [[Good Society]]: humane persons are required to create a humane order, while social institutions and relationships help shape the persons who live within them.

	~~== Notes ==~~		The equivalence is nevertheless incomplete. The classical Great Unity is articulated through sage–kings, virtue, ritual propriety, family relationships, and humanity’s relation to [[Tian]]. The LP’s Harmonic Social Structure is defined more explicitly through the satisfaction of the [[Seven Essential Needs]], removal of the [[Five Barriers to Human Flourishing]], realisation of [[Human Potential]], and concern for planetary well-being. The Great Unity is therefore best understood as a culturally specific Confucian anticipation of the harmonic social ideal, not as a ready-made LP social blueprint.

			=== Terminological Caution ===

			'''Datong''' (大同), the utopian Great Unity, should not be confused with '''''da yitong''''' (大一统), also translated “Great Unity,” which concerns political and cultural unification. Yao discusses the latter in connection with the ''Gongyang'' commentary and Dong Zhongshu’s synthesis during the Han dynasty.<ref>Yao, ''An Introduction to Confucianism'', 84.</ref>

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The '''Great Unity'''

== Concept Map == === Key Terms === World System >{{#ask:Is a key term::World System|format=ul}}Human Development Framework >{{#ask:Is a key term::Human Development Framework|format=ul}} === List of Human Development Frameworks === {{#ask:Is a::Connection Framework|format=ul}} === Confucian Terms === {{#ask:Is a key ter..."

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Created page with "{{navmenu}} <h1 class="customtitle">{{FULLPAGENAME}}</h1> <blockquote class="definition">The '''Great Unity''' </blockquote> == Concept Map == === Key Terms === World System >{{#ask:Is a key term::World System|format=ul}}Human Development Framework >{{#ask:Is a key term::Human Development Framework|format=ul}} === List of Human Development Frameworks === {{#ask:Is a::Connection Framework|format=ul}} === Confucian Terms === {{#ask:Is a key ter..."

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== Concept Map ==

=== Key Terms ===

[[World System]] >{{#ask:[[Is a key term::World System]]|format=ul}}[[Human Development Framework]] >{{#ask:[[Is a key term::Human Development Framework]]|format=ul}}

=== List of Human Development Frameworks ===

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=== Syncretic Terms ===

== Notes ==

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Great Unity - Revision history

Kimi at 13:16, 29 October 2026

Kimi at 13:13, 29 October 2026

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