Our first naming case study led us to sit down with Daxue Consulting’s team members and discuss their name.
When you see Daxue in Daxue Consulting ’s name, what is the first thing that comes to mind? It is believed that the Chinese word Daxue (大学) with the meaning of University will be the commonly agreed answer.
The different meanings of the word daxue
The Chinese word daxue has different meanings in modern and ancient society. In modern times, daxue which literally translate to big (大) studies (学) mainly refers to the academic structures that implement higher education: University. In ancient times however, daxue mainly had two meanings. The first was the place where the students above 15 years old received higher education such as philosophy and politics. It is opposed to the word 小学 xiao (small) xue (studies) for younger children’s education.
The second refers to the name of an excellent classic book focusing on self morality cultivation and the art of management and social affairs, which represents the thoughts of Confucius.
The profile of the book Daxue
Chinese traditional culture is broad and profound, which has a profound influence to actual society all over the world. There into, Confucianism represents fundamentally the wisdom of Chinese philosophy. The classic book Daxue (大学), written by a brilliant student of Confucius, is an important heritage of Confucianism . It had significant impact on the Chinese governor’s mentality from Song Dynasty. And It was the first textbook selected among the Four Books required to be studied for the ancient scholars, before their imperial examination.
The book Daxue was written by Zengzi(曾子), during the Warring states period, 2000 years ago. It mainly summarized the moral-cultivation theory for individuals whatever their ranks in the society. Daxue is often mentioned when discussing Confucianism and has always had a significant influence on Chinese society since its very first publication.
What are the core thoughts of the book Daxue?
The core thoughts followed Confucius’ main thoughts of moral cultivation: uprightness, sincerity, self cultivation, family harmony, country management and world peace. In other words, in order to achieve world peace and harmony, each individual must master his inner peace, harmony within his family, his village, district, city, country and finally the world.
Daxue reflects brilliantly the ancient Chinese philosophers wisdom, this blog merely scraps the surface of this historic subject within Chinese culture. The principles of Daxue have been forgotten during the cultural revolution of China but it is slowly coming back, thus choosing the right Chinese characters during your naming process in order to embrace modern Chinese society values will greatly benefit your brand strategy within the Chinese market.
by Amanda and Diane