Benevolence as the virtue of all virtues
As described above, the Chinese character for benevolence means
‘‘two interconnected people.’’ According to Confucius, benevolence
means loving others (see Legge, 1971 : 167). In this narrower concep-
tion, benevolence represents one of the six major Confucian values
and virtues, namely, benevolence (ren), morality or righteousness (yi),
ritual propriety (li), wisdom (zhi), trustworthiness (xin), and filial
piety (xiao). Righteousness refers to living and acting according to
moral principles instead of pursuing self-interest and material gains.
Ritual propriety refers to the observation of appropriate rituals and
rules of conduct, which are social norms rather than formal laws
and regulations. Confucius warned, ‘‘Look not at what is contrary
to propriety; listen not to what is contrary to propriety; speak not
what is contrary to propriety’’ (Legge, 1971 : 250). Wisdom refers not
only to learning, in the sense of understanding and appreciating the
importance of benevolence, righteousness, and ritual propriety, but
even more importantly to applying that abstract knowledge to real
situations. Trustworthiness implies adherence and loyalty to moral prin-
ciples, to ritual and social rules of propriety, and to one’s superiors
in hierarchical relationships. Finally, filial piety is a valuable virtue
and concerns how to treat one’s parents and ancestors. When asked
by students about filial piety, Confucius replied that it means ‘‘not
disobeying [one’s] parents, serving and supporting them with loyalty
and good-heartedness when they are alive and burying them with
propriety when they are dead’’ (Legge, 1971 : 147–148). Mencius gave
specific examples of filial piety: ‘‘If, when their elders have any trouble-
some affairs,the young take the toil of them, and if, when the young have
wine and food, they set them before their elders’’ (Legge, 1970 :148).
As one can see, these virtues are not mutually exclusive. Further-
more, benevolence is the most important of all virtues and is the
source from which other virtues originate, or an overarching meta-
value that unifies all virtues. For instance, the content of morality was
largely defined in terms of being humane, the standards of ritual and
rule propriety must be subject to the test of benevolence, and filial
duty is an application of benevolence in relation to one’s parents in
particular and one’s elders in general.
Despite the assumption of human goodness, Confucius considered it
a supreme accomplishment to be truly benevolent. Benevolence is what
Confucian and Mencian philosophy 35