Continuous pursuit of the highest level of excellence in knowledge construction

Abstract

This article offers three responses to Liu’s article, Advice from an Editor on Writing and Publishing Journal Articles in Culture-oriented Psychology. First, Liu’s idea of ‘the quest of knowledge as part of a lifelong Journey of self-cultivation’ is compatible with the notion of ‘continuous pursuit of the highest level of excellence’ in The Great Learning, thus demonstrating the mission of academic research and knowledge construction. Second, Liu uses the metaphors of ‘cocktail party’ and ‘sandwich’ to describe the components and highlights of an academic paper. In response, an analogy of ‘seek and find’ is used to describe the writing of an academic article at a micro level and the allegory of ox herding is used to illustrate the process of knowledge seeking and construction. Third, Liu suggests that culture-oriented psychologists learn to redirect their academic focus from being indigenous to being crosscultural and cultural evolutionary. Both the new opportunities and challenges of this vision are discussed. In conclusion, the five constant virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness are applied to highlight the mission, the principle, and the ethics of knowledge construction.