The work known as the *Doctrine of the Mean* (*Zhongyong*) is traditionally attributed to Zisi, also known as Kong Ji, the grandson of Confucius. Within the Confucian lineage, this attribution carries more than mere historical interest; it suggests that the text emerges from an intimate continuation of Confucius’s own moral and spiritual concerns. To say that Zisi authored or compiled it is to recognize a transmission of insight from master to descendant, both familial and philosophical. The text thus stands as a bridge between the living example of Confucius and the later, more systematized expressions of Confucian thought.

At the same time, careful readers and scholars have long sensed that the *Doctrine of the Mean* bears traces of development over time, as though it were a river fed by several springs rather than a single source. Modern scholarship often regards it as a work likely shaped by multiple hands, with layers that may reflect different moments in the maturation of Confucian reflection. This does not contradict the traditional attribution so much as deepen it, suggesting that Zisi’s role may be seen as a focal point in a broader, evolving conversation. The text, in this light, becomes less a solitary author’s treatise and more a woven tapestry of the Confucian quest for balance and inner harmony.

Centuries later, the *Doctrine of the Mean* was gathered into the Confucian canon as one of the Four Books by the Neo-Confucian thinker Zhu Xi, who also provided influential commentary. This act of selection and interpretation effectively re-situated the work, giving it a central place in the spiritual and ethical education of later generations. Zhu Xi’s role highlights how a text can be reborn in new historical contexts, its meaning refined and refracted through fresh lenses of understanding. The *Doctrine of the Mean* thus stands at a crossroads of tradition and reinterpretation, rooted in the name of Zisi yet shaped by many voices across time.