"Four Sentences of Heng Qu" and the Intelligentsias Sense of Mission

Zhang Zai was one of the major founders of Confucian learning in Song and Ming dynasties.On the basis of inheriting the spirit of constantly strive to become stronger by Confucians,he brought forwards the Four Stentences of Heng Qu with concerns about people and spirit of man and Nature being harmonious one: to establish intention for the world;to establish mission for the people;to inherit discontinued learning for the late saint;and to initiate peace for all ages.The Four Stentences of Heng Qu not only embodied Zhang Zais determination and faith to pass Confucian ethics,but also include the profound awareness by the intelligentsia of apprehension in peace time,leading to the pursuit and practice of ethic ideal and political ideal,which has merged into the sense of mission and responsibility of Chinese intelligentsia and is still of great realistic significance today.