Under a bodhi tree

Rendao: The Way of Ren

Wu Weiming吳維明March 5, 2021

The teachings of the Confucian school of thought, rujia (儒家), can be summed up as rendao (仁道), the way of ren. Kongzi (孔子, Confucius) once recapitulated his core teachings as: “Set sight on dao; be grounded on de (virtues); be guided by ren; immerse oneself in fine art.” ¹ Rendao is the Confucian way of achieving harmony in human society. Both rujia and daojia (道家, the Daoist school of thought) subscribe to the Chinese worldview shaped by Yi Jing (《易經》,《易经》, The Book of Changes). The central tenet of Yi Jing is that knowing dao (道) is the key to achieve and maintain harmony. According to Kongzi, the way to know dao is through becoming a virtuous person.

The Confucian Way of Knowing Dao

Truthful to the heritage of Yi Jing, Kongzi grasps learning as a process of change—a process of personal transformation. As one learns more and more about medicine, one will become a medical doctor or healer. To become a chef is to learn the art of cooking, and by becoming a loving person one would know love. Likewise, one would know dao by becoming a virtuous person—a junzi (君子). Kongzi has been revered as the Paragon Teacher. This insight into learning has become the bedrock of education for more than two thousand years in the Chinese tradition and has greatly influenced many Asian cultures.

The Analects (《論語》,《论语》, Lunyu) starts with Kongzi’s comment about learning: “Isn’t it a joy to learn and put what’s learned into practice? Isn’t it a great pleasure to have a friend visiting from afar? Isn’t it being a junzi to harbor no resentment toward those who do not know us?” ² It may seem that Kongzi strayed off the topic of learning in such a short remark and talked about unrelated matters of a friend’s visit and harboring no resentment. But once we come to know Kongzi’s view on personal transformation by means of the cultivation of virtue, we would see that Kongzi stayed on the topic and the whole comment is about learning. Cultivation and transformation is a gradual process that takes daily practice. In day-to-day contact, we may not notice and discern the small changes that are occurring daily. However, friends who haven’t seen each other for several years would, upon reunion, notice the transformation. It would indeed be a joy to see each other’s progress in personal development toward becoming a junzi. Kongzi’s remark on harboring no resentment toward people who do not know us is about the motivation of personal cultivation. Since a junzi’s personal growth is not driven by the pursuit of money and status, he or she would naturally take no offense when others fail to pay their respects.

As more and more people become virtuous, they will know dao and work together to build a harmonious society so that humans can flourish and live a good life. To this end, Confucianism seeks to educate and transform people into virtuous members of society through the cultivation of de (德), virtues.

The cultivation of virtue

The cultivation of de centers on three virtues: ren (仁), zhong (忠) and shu (恕). It is hard to find exact words in English as translations of these three terms. To gain a more complete understanding of them, we will go over each Chinese character to bring out its full meaning.

Ren

Figure 1 The Chinese Character Ren In Kongzi’s teachings ren is the most important virtue to cultivate people for a harmonious society. It is the virtue that serves as the bedrock for all the other virtues. It is commonly translated as kindness or benevolence. But this comes up short of capturing its original meaning.

The Chinese character ‘仁’ is composed of two characters: ‘人’ and ‘二’. The character ‘人’ means “human” or “people”. The character ‘二’ is the Chinese numeral for “two”. Together these two characters mean “two people”. The original meaning of ‘仁’ reveals tellingly how the character came to be used to represent the virtue that governs how two people should treat each other. The term is used to capture Kongzi’s teaching of reciprocity—the proper ways of how two people treat each other. As ethics is seen in the Chinese culture as a matter of how people live with others and treat each other, ren became the virtue that encompasses all the other virtues. In the Analects, Kongzi typically teaches ren with examples of how one should treat others under various circumstances. These examples serve to elucidate the proper ways of managing inter-personal relationships. When people treat each other right with civility, harmony can be advanced in households and society.

A person who has developed the virtue of ren is called a junzi and is a paragon to emulate and learn from. A junzi would always treat others with respect and civility, and conduct him- or herself properly as a loyal and dedicated government official or public servant, a loving and devoted husband or wife, a firm and caring parent, a filial son or daughter, and a trustworthy friend.

Kongzi’s blueprint for achieving harmony in human society is quite commonsensical and down to earth. The more junzi there are in a society the more harmonious it would become. One of Kongzi’s beloved disciples Zengzi (曾子) once summed up Kongzi’s teachings in terms of two other virtues: zhong (忠) and shu (恕). ³

Zhong

Figure 2 The Chinese Character Zhong Zhong (忠) can be translated into a wide variety of words such as truthfulness, sincerity, dedication, loyalty, impartiality and unbiasedness. Again, we can gain a deeper understanding of its original meaning by deciphering the Chinese character. The character ‘忠’ is made up of two characters: ‘中’ and ‘心’. The character ‘中’ has two meanings: (1) “inside”, and (2) “middle” or “center”. The character ‘心’ means “heart”. Accordingly, the first literal meaning of zhong is “from the inside of one’s heart”. If everything we say and do comes from our hearts, then we would be truthful with ourselves and sincere toward others. For Confucianism, the cultivation of virtue starts with being honest with oneself. To improve oneself and become a junzi over time, one needs to know oneself—especially one’s shortcomings. By recognizing and acknowledging one’s deficiencies, one could then begin to work on correcting them and become a better person. Psychologically, this is a hard step to take, for facing our shortcomings does not make us feel good about ourselves. However, it is the first hurdle we need to cross if we want to improve ourselves. This is why daily self-reflection is greatly emphasized in Confucianism. To cultivate zhong, we need to engage in self-reflection to make sure what we say and do comes from our hearts. Zengzi was beloved by Kongzi because he practiced daily reflection on three acts to cultivate himself. ⁴

Furthermore, it is only when a person is truthful with him- or herself can he or she be trusted by others. A trustworthy person would of course be faithful and loyal, and always do his or her best for others. This is why zhong also means being loyal, trustworthy, and dedicated.

The second literal meaning of zhong is “heart in the middle”. To put one’s heart in the middle means to have an “unbiased heart”—to be fair, just and impartial. The virtue of zhong is paramount in combating prejudice, discrimination and bigotry.

Shu

Figure 3 The Chinese Character Shu Shu is often translated as empathy, compassion and forgivingness (the willingness to forgive). The character ‘恕’ is formed by combining two characters ‘如’ and ‘心’ together. As we saw earlier, ‘心’ means “heart”. The character ‘如’ means “similar”. So ‘恕’ literally means “a similar heart”. To have the virtue of shu is to have a heart similar to the heart of the person whom one cares about. This means, first of all, to be sensitive and considerate, to have empathy, to put oneself in another person’s shoes. Moreover, a person who has empathy would more likely be compassionate and forgiving.

The virtue of zhong motivates us to be truthful, dedicated and strive to be our best. However, we are only human and, despite our best efforts to be good, can still make mistakes in life. When we err or transgress, we need others to forgive us. By reciprocity, when others come up short or misbehave, we need to find room in our hearts to forgive them. It is never easy, but without shu, it would be hard to mend relationships and sustain harmony. When Zigong (子貢，子贡) asked Kongzi for a motto to serve as a life-long guidance, Kongzi picked shu. This indicates how important Kongzi thinks shu is. Kongzi was among the first great sages to articulate the Golden Rule. He stated the rule as “what you do not want done to yourself, do not do to the others.” ⁵ It is clear that to follow the Golden Rule is to practice the virtue of shu. Once we understand how zhong and shu are supposed to complement each other, we come to appreciate why both virtues are essential in the way of ren.

The Institution of Li

Figure 4 The Chinese Character Li Li (禮，礼) means the norms of decorum and civility. The cultivation of virtue is to be carried out through li so as to transform society and promote harmony. Kongzi’s disciple Youzi once said that “the most valuable objective of implementing li is harmony.”⁶ The approach is to set up and promote rules of conduct and etiquettes by means of institutions and customs. It is a gradual, long-termed process to cultivate respect and civility among people in daily activities. Those with power and status should especially be self-reflective and diligent in setting good examples for others to follow. Once the proper ways of conducting oneself becomes habitual, they would be internalized and become the second nature. In this way a person would gradually become a junzi over time.

Kongzi, unlike Mengzi (孟子) and Xunzi (荀子) after him, does not presuppose that human nature is good or evil. He acknowledges that people are born alike but with differences. But he stresses that people can become better through self- and social-cultivation. ⁷ It is Kongzi’s humanism not to deem someone or something as evil by nature. His position is not a scientific one based on research. Rather, it is a humanistic one in rejecting the cruelty in regarding certain people as born evil. How can we hold a newborn baby and say that this one is a born killer? Kongzi’s concern here is not about whether people are born evil, or born good but corrupted by the environment. His focus is on our obligation to do our best to raise and guide children once they are born into this world. To give up on a child would be inhumane. Kongzi’s view is in accordance with the Chinese worldview that good is understood as dynamic balance, and bad, dynamic imbalance. Just as yin or yang by itself is neither good nor bad, nothing is intrinsically good or bad. Kongzi holds that human nature is malleable and can be refined. His teaching philosophy is that we need to do our best to teach all, regardless of people’s innate likenesses and differences. Through li Kongzi seeks to mold people into civilized members of society to maintain harmony.

Mutual respect and reciprocity serve as lubricant to lessen frictions in human interaction and thus are essential in fostering harmony in human society. Each one of us would like others to treat us right. To earn and be worthy of respect from others, we need to first conduct ourselves in proper manners. This is why li plays a central role in Confucianism and is always meant to be practiced with reciprocity. As Kongzi emphasized, when we demand a son to be filial, we should also expect his father to be loving and kind. Likewise, it would be unreasonable to ask for a younger brother to be respectful toward an older brother without requiring the latter to be friendly to the former.

How we should act reciprocally toward each other becomes our responsibilities to ourselves and to others. The emphasis on the responsibilities that come with inter-personal relationships can counterbalance extreme individualism, restore family values and promote social harmony. A person who deserts his family can never get away with the lame excuse “It is my life,” and we would do well not to forget the saying “No man is an island.”

The internalization of li at the personal level and its institutionalization at the societal level would take decades to cultivate. Even after we succeed in such a monumental undertaking, we would still need to sustain it from generation to generation. For Confucianism, a civil and humane society is like a rose garden and we need to be constant gardeners.

The Renaissance of Confucianism

Confucianism not only became the mainstream philosophy in China but also greatly impacted the cultures of many Asian countries such as Korea, Japan and Singapore. In recent decades, it has enjoyed a renaissance in many Asian countries and gained popularity globally. Confucianism, given its championing of harmony, can serve as a beacon of peace in the age of globalization when the increased interactions among nations and peoples lead to ongoing challenges to peace and harmony. Kongzi deeply believes that harmony in human society can be achieved when we learn to treat each other right.

The basic tenet of Confucianism that harmony can be achieved when people learn to treat each other right may seem so obvious as to border on banality. But its truth and practicality have been borne out throughout human history. It is not difficult to see that much of violence and suffering in the world throughout history results from the craving for power to dominate and exploit others deemed inferior. Having seen so much killing and turmoil during the Period of Spring and Autumn, Kongzi loathed and despised badao (霸道, the way of domination and bullying), and championed rendao as a remedy for human brutality and cruelty. The way of ren is his way to peace and harmony, and is even more relevant today than during the Period of Spring and Autumn and the Era of Warring States. Even though the basic idea of rendao is easy to grasp, its implementation demands a long-term dedication and broad-scale institutionalization. Kongzi had no illusion that human society could ever be perfect. Still, he truly believed that it could be made more harmonious with ongoing diligence, and urged us to do our best. In a society of ren, there would be less bigotry, violence, greed and obsession with power, but more civility, justice, generosity and compassion.

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