Another key value in Confucian thinking--the second leg of the tripod--is humaneness, the care and concern for other human beings.
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A second, very important concept in the Analects of Confucius and again, in later Confucian thought is that of ren. Sometimes that term ren is translated as goodness, benevolence. I prefer to translate it as humaneness or humanity because the character is made up of two parts. On the left is the element that means a person or a human being. On the right the element that represents a number two. So, ren has a sense of a person together with others. A human being together with other human beings, a human being in society. |
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Excerpt from the Analects:
Confucius said: "...The humane man, desiring to be established himself, seeks
to establish others; desiring himself to succeed, he helps others to succeed. To
judge others by what one knows of oneself is the method of achieving humanity..." 1
1. Sources of Chinese Tradition, Wm. Theodore de Bary, ed. (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1960), Analects VI:28