The Junzi I

Posted: Mon, Sep 8, 2025

Who’s the philosopher?

  • Morton’s answer: The critical but constructive visionary.
  • The ancient Greek answer: The lover of wisdom.
    • Philosophía: “Love of wisdom.”
  • The ancient Chinese answer: The gentleman, or junzi.

The idea of a junzi

Junzi 君子: “Son of a monarch/prince.”

  • Resignification (“conceptual engineering,” as contemporary philosophers say): [Hereditarily] nobleman -> [morally] noble man (standardly translated as “gentleman”).
    • Both jun 君 and zi 子 are gendered characters.
    • Can you be a junzi if you are not a man (17.25)?
  • One is not born, but rather learns to be, a junzi.
    • Xue 学 (“learning”): Transformative self-cultivation/moral character development, not acquiring specialized knowledge (e.g., agriculture, 13.4).
    • Pitched in part at rulers: Tian 天 (“Heaven,” conceived of as a higher power) confers its ming 命 (“mandate,” understood here as a moral right, rather than de facto power, to rule) on the virtuous.

Two questions I’d like us to focus on today:

  • What’s a junzi like?
  • How do you learn to become one?

The concept of ren

The junzi exemplifies the high virtue of ren 仁 (“goodness”), which enables him to be in harmony with the dao 道 (“way [of Heaven]”).

  • Ren 仁: Phono-semantic compound that takes the sound of ren 人 (“human”) and the meaning of er 二 (“two”); famously elusive.
  • Dao 道: Roadway; ~how things ought to be/how we ought to live.

In-class activity: What does Kongzi think ren amounts to? How does one achieve ren?

  • Group 1: 1.1, 1.12, 2.17, 4.2, 4.16, 4.22, 5.12, 6.29, 11.22, 11.26, 17.21.
  • Group 2: 1.2, 2.11, 3.23, 4.1, 4.17–20, 6.18, 7.30, 8.9, 9.3, 12.19, 14.36.

Li 礼 (“rituals”) from the long-gone Zhou period (1046–771 BCE; Kongzi lived between 551 and 479 BCE).

  • The Zhou already figured it out; let’s just revive their li.
  • Not just ceremonial rites but social customs governing proper conduct (e.g., the golden rule).
  • Xiao 孝 (“filial piety”): Respect for parents in the forms of obedience, three-year mourning period, etc.
  • More know-how than know-that.
  • Should be applied in a way that’s sensitive to circumstances, but this is not that flexible (e.g., 9.3, 11.22, 17.21).

Some broader questions: How should we relate to the ancients? How should we relate to Kongzi and his teachings?