Robert Oxnam :: Another
key value in Confucian thinking — the second leg of the tripod — is
humaneness, the care and concern for other human beings.
Irene Bloom :: 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 the 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.
ren
[Excerpt from the Analects of Confucius]
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..."
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