Significant Chinese Philosophical Concepts
| biran 必然 |
(“what is necessarily the case”) |
| chengji 成己 |
(“completed self,” “refined self”) |
| chengren 成人 |
(“complete person,” “perfected person,” “refined person”) |
| dangran 当然 |
(“what should be the case”) |
| dao 道 |
(“way” “method” “principle”) |
| de 德 |
(“power,” “virtue”) |
| du 度 |
(“proper measure”) |
| fa 法 |
(“law” “method”) |
| gong 公 |
(“public,” “general,” “to make public”) |
| gongzheng 公正 |
(“justice”) |
| he 和 |
(“harmony”) |
| jian’ai 兼爱 |
(“universal love”) |
| jing 经 |
(“dogma,” “guideline,” “constant”) |
| jingjie 境界 |
(“state of mind,” “spiritual state,” “realm”) |
| junzi 君子 |
(“superior person”) |
| li 礼 |
(“ritual” “ritual propriety”) |
| li 理 |
(“principle,” “reason,” “defining pattern,” “coherence”) |
| lixing 理性 |
(“rational,” “reason”) |
| liyi 礼义 |
(“ritual propriety and morality”) |
| lizhi 理智 |
(“intellectual reason”) |
| ming 名 |
(“names”) |
| qi 气 |
(“material force,” “air,” “stuff”) |
| quan 权 |
(“measure,” “expedient,” “transitory”) |
| ren 仁 |
(“humaneness,” “benevolence”) |
| shi 实 |
(“actualities”) |
| shi 事 |
(“thing[s],” “event[s],” or “matters”) |
| shiran 实然 |
(“what should be the case,” “the way things are”) |
| shu 恕 |
(“reciprocity”) |
| si 私 |
(“private,” “individual,” “secret”) |
| tianming 天命 |
(“the mandate of heaven”) |
| tong 同 |
(“sameness”) |
| wu 无 |
(“non-being,” “non-presence,” “to lack”) |
| wuwei 无为 |
(“non-action,” “doing non-doing,” “acting without interfering”) |
| xiao 孝 |
(“filial piety”) |
| xing 性 |
(“nature,” “disposition,” “natural tendencies”) |
| yang 阳 |
(“bright,” “light,” “higher”) |
| yi 义 |
(“appropriate,” “human relations,” “duty,” “equitable”) |
| yin 阴 |
(“shade,” “dark,” “lower”) |
| you 有 |
(“being,” “presence,” “to have”) |
| zheng 正 |
(“central, “straight/upright,” “to align/correct”) |
| zhengming 正名 |
(“rectifying names”) |
| zhengyi 正义 |
(“justice”) |
| zhong 中 |
(“nascent equilibrium”) |
| zhong 忠 |
(“faithfulness”) |
| zhongshu 忠恕 |
(“faithfulness and reciprocity”) |
| ziran 自然 |
(“self-so,” “natural,” “spontaneity”) |