Zhongyong is conventionally rendered the doctrine of the mean and the translation invites a misreading, because it does not mean moderation as a disposition or splitting the difference. It means hitting the centre — the response exactly fitted to this situation — and the fitting response may be extreme. The second character, yong, carries the sense of the ordinary or the constant, so the term also implies that this precision is to be exercised in everyday life rather than reserved for crises. Mencius sharpens it with the notion of timeliness, and calls Confucius the sage of the timely — the one who took office when it was right to, left when it was right to, stayed when it was right to stay. The counter-example he gives is holding to the middle without weighing circumstances, which he says is as bad as holding to one extreme, because it fixes what ought to be responsive.