Sinograph Addenda · Signs

humane

Namehumane
Readsrén
Meanshumane; humaneness, the Confucian virtue
Taught in03 · The master says

Where it comes from

A person beside two: what holds between two people — the received account of the deepest virtue in the Confucian world. It says the same syllable as , and the classics lean on the pun on purpose: humaneness is being-a-person. Taught in the master’s chapter.

How to remember it

One person, then the number two: it takes two people for humane to mean anything. The character is an ethics lecture in five strokes.

In the wild

Analects 6.23. urn:nabu:kanripo:KR1h0004:006:30a · license: attribution.