The Great Unity (Chinese: 大同; pinyin: dàtóng), also translated as Grand Union, Great Equality or Universal Harmony, or Great Harmony, is a Chinese vision of the ideal world originating in ancient Chinese philosophy, which was based on the idealized image of the values of "eminent men of the three dynasties" (Xia, Shang, Zhou) as understood by the Confucian tradition. In this ideal societal model, everyone and everything was at peace and lived in harmony and mutual-support, and its advocates believed in the need to restore such a model of society. Although it is found in classical Chinese philosophy as a model based on the idealized past, modern intellectuals adapted the concept beginning with Kang Youwei (1858 – 1927), often combining it with utopian ideas.
