仁 (rén): benevolence

Meanings

1 benevolence
2 humaneness
3 kindness
4 kernel (of a nut)

Characters

仁

rén

benevolence; kernel

Examples

仁者爱人。

Rén zhě ài rén.

The benevolent love others.

核桃仁可以用来做蛋糕。

Hétáorén kěyǐ yònglái zuò dàngāo.

Walnut kernels can be used to make cakes.

Tips

culture

仁 is one of the core Confucian virtues — the supreme quality of compassion and love for others. Confucius considered it the highest moral ideal.

memory

The character 仁 is 亻 (person) + 二 (two) = how two people should treat each other, i.e., with kindness.

Components

radical

亻 rén

person (radical form of 人)

Person radical on the left — the side-form of 人. It is the indexing radical and pins the whole meaning: benevolence is a relation between people, not a private feeling. The Confucian 仁 (humaneness) is by definition 'two-person', which the right component makes explicit.

semantic

二 èr

two

Right side 二 'two' makes the compound a visual definition: one person plus two — the connection between a person and another, the basic unit of human kindness. The Confucian reading is the famous gloss: 仁 = 人 + 二 — how a self meets the other.