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仁

rén
noun #10,963

Meanings

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

Examples

HSK 3
仁者爱人。
Rén zhě ài rén.
The benevolent love others.
HSK 7-9
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.

Stroke Order

仁 rén