The Doctrine of the Mean is one of the Chinese Confucian classics with profound philosophy, also an important work on education theories of ancient China. But the existing version of the work bears noticeable signs of modification by the Qin Dynasty Confucian scholars and was presumably completed not long after the Qin unified the whole country. It can be seen as a Confucian work of the Qin and Han Dynasties.

The Doctrine of the Mean was composed around the Qin and Han Dynasties. It was part of Classic of Rites before Zhu Xi of the Southern Song Dynasty included it into the Four Books along with the Great Learning, the Analects of Confucius and the Mencius. After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, The Doctrine of the Mean became a required textbook in schools and a must-read for imperial examinations.

The main idea of The Doctrine of the Mean is to educate people in spontaneous self cultivation, self supervision, self education and self perfection to become an ideal person that is extremely good, kind, honest, moral, ethical and holy, integrating internal cultivation with external actions. The core idea of the Mean is "going beyond the limit is as bad as falling short", which means the way to behave and to handle matters should be reasonable and moderate, without going extreme or leaning to either side.

The "golden mean" promoted in The Doctrine of the Mean is an ancient philosophical thought of the Chinese nation, which had broad and extensive influence on the development of Chinese history. The education theory of "from broad learning to sincere conduct" stated in the book as well as the learning spirits of diligence and perseverance still serve as reference today.