Shanghai 2009
Thursday, 23 July 2009 06:07
Written by Anna Greenspan

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Zhen (真), variously translated as benevolence, courage, honesty, loyalty, and kindness, is a key Confucian concept. The Chinese character contains the particles for ‘personhood’ and for ‘two’. It has an alternative translation as ‘humanity’.

Li (礼), also central to Confucianism, is translated as rites, politeness or ceremony, denoting the established forms or rituals governing human interaction. It is the outward expression of jen.

De (德), most often translated as virtue or moral power, is a Daoist concept denoting the qualities received from the Dao, or the power through which the Dao is made manifest. This is the ‘De’ of the 'Dao De Jing' (The Book of the Way and its Virtue). In Daoism its ethical implications arise from the virtue attained by realizing the Dao. In Confucianism it is the moral power embodied by the wise ruler or sage that has the power to transform society.

Dao (道), the Way, the unnamable, undefinable primordial force of creation, is the process that underlies nature and time. In Daoism, ethics is conceived as action in accordance with the Dao. In Confucianism, Dao is even more explicitly tied to human behavior as Dao (the way) is understood as the correct way to live.

Xiao (孝) or filial piety is a crucial value to Confucianism and to Chinese culture generally, which considers the family, rather than the solitary individual, the basic unit of society.

Wu wei (无为) is the Daoist ideal, usually translated as nonaction or nondoing, based on a cultivated respect for the natural course of things. The notion is found in Confucianism and is inherited by Chan (Zen) Buddhism, where it continues to operate as an essential principle.

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