This word was first seen in the pre-Qin classic Book of Rites University, which is the first two of the eight stages of Confucianism proposed in the book: "If the ancients want to show their virtue in the world, they must first govern their country; If you want to govern your country, you should first get your family together; If you want to reunite with your family, you should first repair your body; If you want to cultivate yourself, you should be upright first; If you want to be correct, be sincere first; If you want sincerity, let him know first. Knowledge exists in things. Knowing things before knowing, knowing before being sincere, being sincere before being correct, being correct before being repaired, being repaired before being at home, ruling the country at home and leveling the world. "
This passage is a staged behavior goal put forward by Confucianism to realize its political thought of self-cultivation, family harmony, governing the country and leveling the world. The starting point of this program behavior program is to know what to do. It can be seen that the understanding of things really plays an extremely important role in Confucianism.
"Ge" and "Wu" were widely used in ancient times, which is probably not difficult to understand in Confucius' time. Confucius himself did not explain, nor did his disciples explain the meaning of Wu Ge, which led to many ambiguities in later generations' understanding of Wu Ge's meaning. Everyone wants to explain it according to their own philosophical tendency, which makes this issue really blossom.