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The Life‐giving Force of “ Ren ” and Dai Zhen’s Conception of Desire
Author(s) -
Lan Fei
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
religion compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.113
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1749-8171
DOI - 10.1111/rec3.12021
Subject(s) - vitalism , psychology , creativity , reading (process) , subject (documents) , meaning (existential) , interpretation (philosophy) , psychoanalysis , humanities , epistemology , philosophy , social psychology , psychotherapist , medicine , linguistics , alternative medicine , pathology , library science , computer science
This article examines the vitalistic meaning of “ ren ” (仁) with its focus of discussion on the 18th century Confucian thinker Dai Zhen’s (戴震 1724–1777) reading of the concept. I argue that Dai Zhen, in both continuation with and departure from the Neo‐Confucian thought on the vitalism of ren provides a unique interpretation of this key Confucian notion in terms of the creative creativity of shengsheng (生生) and thereby throws a fresh light on the age‐old subject of human desire.