仁者爱人 – Chinese philosophy and culture

0
134
Listen to this article

rénzhě’àirén 仁者爱人

The Benevolent Person Loves Others.

仁者对他人充满仁爱之心。“仁者”即有仁德的人,是有大智大勇、德行完满、关爱他人、有人格魅力和感召力的人。“仁”在孔子那里是最高的道德范畴和境界,以“爱人”为基本规定,意思是“仁”从孝父母、敬兄长开始,进而关爱家族其他成员,进而扩大至全天下的人。孟子将其提炼为思想命题,并应用于治国理政,提出君子由亲爱亲人而仁爱百姓,由仁爱百姓而爱惜万物。在儒家看来,人虽然有差等,但仁爱却是普世的。它是构建和谐、友善社会的基础和目标。

The benevolent person has a loving heart. Renzhe (仁者) refers to benevolent and virtuous people or people with loving hearts, who have tremendous courage, wisdom, perfect moral character, charm, and charisma, and who love and care about others. Confucianism holds ren (仁) as the highest moral value. The basic meaning of ren is loving others, and to love others, one should first show filial piety to one’s parents and respect one’s elder brothers, and then extend love and care to other family members, and eventually to everyone else in the world. Mencius synthesized and upgraded this notion into a theory to be applied to the governance of a country. He proposed that a person of virtue should love and care about first his loved ones, then other people, and finally everything on earth. Confucianism believed that love could be extended to people in a certain order, but that benevolence has universal value, which is both the foundation and the goal of building a harmonious and good-will society.

引例 Citations:

◎仁者爱人,有礼者敬人。爱人者,人恒爱之;敬人者,人恒敬之。(《孟子·离娄下》)

(仁者爱别人,有礼节的人尊敬别人。爱别人的人,别人总也爱他;尊敬别人的人,别人总也尊敬他。)

He who is benevolent loves others, and he who having manners respects others. He who loves others is loved by others and he who respects others is respected by others. (Mencius)

◎亲亲而仁民,仁民而爱物。(《孟子·尽心上》)

(君子亲爱亲人,因而仁爱百姓;仁爱百姓,因而爱惜万物。)

Men of virtue love and care for their loved ones, they are therefore kind to other people. When they are kind to people, they treasure everything on earth. (Mencius)

Rate this post

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here