ren

ren, the foundational virtue of Confucianism. It characterizes the bearing and behaviour that a paradigmatic human being exhibits in order to promote a flourishing human community.

Humaneness and human beings

The concept of ren reflects presuppositions that are characteristic of Confucian philosophical anthropology (philosophical reflection on human nature). Confucians have historically viewed each person not as a morally autonomous individual but as a social being whose identity derives from his interaction with and conduct within the broader human community. The person who exhibits ren exemplifies the ideal of what a human being should be and encourages others to strive toward it. In fact, the word is homophonous with the word for human being (ren). The concept of ren has been interpreted in different ways, some of them partially expressed in English renderings such as “goodness,” “benevolence,” and “love.” All these interpretations, however, share two notions: every human being has the capacity to possess ren, and ren manifests itself when a virtuous person treats others with humaneness. Confucians associated the humane individual with the junzi, or cultured gentleman, whose exemplary behaviour distinguishes him from the petty person (xiaoren; literally a “small person,” like a child). One could say that within the Confucian worldview, ren is ren: embodying the virtue of humaneness requires that one become an ethically mature human being.

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Confucianism

Confucian conceptions of ren

The philosophical significance of ren is due to Confucius (551–479 bce), a former bureaucrat who became a teacher of young scholars hoping for careers in government. Confucius was a shi, one of a class of formerly landed noblemen who had once been similar in status to the medieval European knight but by Confucius’s time had lost their social privileges and served as scholar-officials in the government. Confucius invested terms that had previously referred to aristocratic ideals with a moral significance that applied to people generally. The term ren had originally meant the handsomeness and bearing of the young virtuous warrior. Confucius transformed it into the uprightness of the junzi, who influences others toward ethical action with the example of his excellence (de). According to Confucius, being such a gentleman does not require a high social rank, a fine appearance, or an eloquent manner of speech. Rather, it requires that one embody goodness in one’s relationships with others.

One of Confucius’s statements about acquiring ren may give the impression that it is an easy task. He said, “Whenever I want ren, it is as close as the palm of my hand.” Yet he also stated that his best student, Yan Hui, was the only person he had known who had exhibited ren for any significant length of time, and then only for three months, suggesting that the attainment and practice of the virtue was an arduous or even elusive task. The paradox was reinforced by Confucius’s repeated refusal to claim that he had ever attained ren himself.

Subsequent Confucian thinkers offered their own interpretations of ren. The foundational philosopher Mencius (371–289 bce), whose influence and popularity became such that he was known as the “second sage” of Confucian tradition after Confucius himself, provided the most influential interpretation. According to Mencius, the sprout (duan; also meaning “beginning”) of ren is a spontaneous feeling of compassion and commiseration within the human heart-and-mind (xin), the locus of both cognitive and affective functions. His prime example was that of a person who sees a young child playing around the edge of a well and about to fall in. He could not witness this without feeling concern for the child’s welfare within his heart-and-mind, though this feeling would not necessarily move him to perform the moral act of attempting to save the child. In order that the sprout of compassion and commiseration develop into ren and the tendency toward morality be brought to fruition, one must act with benevolence toward others and extend that benevolence toward all of humanity when possible.

Non-Confucian critiques

Ren became a distinctly Confucian virtue. As classical Chinese philosophy developed during the Warring States period (475–221 bce), the concept was criticized by thinkers from other intellectual movements. One of the main charges was essentially that the concept depended upon a vision of society modeled on the family and rooted in hierarchical and even elitist relationships. Although Confucianism was far from being a static economy of relationships in which each person knew his “place,” it did regard filial piety (xiao) and showing respect (ti) for elders (and other people of rank) as ideal behaviours. One of the major formulations of this critique came from the utopian and quasi-utilitarian thinker Mozi (470?–391? bce), who rejected what he saw as the implicit hierarchy in ren and opted instead for “universal love” (jianai). Despite the meaning of its name, jianai was not an overflowing of goodness or benevolence directed toward all but rather a starkly practical approach to other human beings, all of whom were to be treated as equals. Each person, even one’s own father or mother, was merely another brother or sister who was worthy of respect but due no special consideration.

The philosophical and religious movement subsequently known as Daoism (daojia), whose thinkers gradually distinguished themselves from the Confucians, launched the second great critique of ren in the Daodejing, a philosophical and spiritual text composed about 300 bce and traditionally attributed to the mythical sage Laozi. Confucius and Mencius connected ren with the order of heaven (tian), offering a worldview within which humans were more important than other creatures. By contrast, the Daodejing stated that heaven was buren, literally “no special lover of humanity,” and in fact it compared humans to the straw dogs that are sacrificed (in place of real dogs) and discarded once the ritual has been completed. This did not, of course, imply misanthropy on the part of Daoists. Rather, Daoists held that humans were only one class of things among many others. Thus, any purported virtue that placed them above all other aspects of the world would in fact be the antithesis of virtue.