"Loving the people" is like Mencius's "loving kin and being benevolent to the people."
"To love the people is to reach the function of the unity of heaven, earth, and all things."
爱问：「『在亲民』，朱子谓当作『新民』，后章『作新民』之文，似亦有据。先生以为宜从旧本作『亲民』，亦有所据否？」
先生曰：「『作新民』之『新』，是自新之民，与『在新民』之『新』不同，此岂足为据？『亲』字犹『亲民』犹孟子『亲亲仁民』之谓。亲之即仁之也，百姓不亲焉，虞舜使契为司徒，教以人伦，所以亲之也。《大学》之所谓『亲民』者，亦教之以人伦、使之自新，以复其本然之善而已，非有改于其外也。」
Xu Ai asked: "Regarding 'in loving the people,' Zhu Xi says it should be 'in renewing the people.' The later passage on 'making the people new' seems to support this. Does Master have evidence for following the old text as 'loving the people'?"
The Master said: "The 'new' in 'making the people new' refers to people renewing themselves — it is different from the 'new' in 'renewing the people.' How can this serve as evidence? The word 'loving' is like Mencius's 'loving kin and being benevolent to the people.' To love them is to be benevolent to them. When the people were not close, Shun appointed Qi as Minister of Instruction to teach human relationships — this is how to love the people. What the Great Learning calls 'loving the people' is also teaching them human relationships, enabling them to renew themselves and return to their original goodness — not changing anything external about them."
Good education is "loving" not "renewing" — not transforming students into what you want them to be, but getting close to them, understanding them, and helping them discover their innate potential. This is the pedagogy of "loving the people."
"The 'new' in 'making the people new' is different from the 'new' in 'renewing the people.'"
Yangming points out the flaw in Zhu Xi's argument: the "new" in "making the people new" from the Book of Documents is a verb meaning "to renew oneself," while Zhu Xi changed "loving" to "renewing" in the Great Learning — the two uses of "new" have different contexts and cannot prove each other.
"To love them is to be benevolent to them."
This is the key sentence. "Loving" is not mere closeness, but the practice of "benevolence." Mencius said "love kin, then be benevolent to the people, then love all things" — benevolence begins with loving kin and extends outward. The word "loving" already contains the meaning of benevolence.