Renging and Li in China
2 min readRenging
Closely intertwined with“guanxi”is“renqing”，an important vehicle in Chinese social exchanges.“renqing”which literally translates as“human feelings”is defines by one western scholar as covers not only sentiment but also its social expressions such as the offering of congratulations, or condo lences or the making of gifts on appropriate occasions. The rule of renqing in Chinese society as fellows:”if you have received a drop of beneficence from other people, you should return to them a fountain of beneficence.”A Chinese who has done a favor for you automatically feels that he or she is owned a favor from you in return. Actually “renqing”follows Confucian notion of reciprocity. There are many Chinese expressions that associated with “renqing”, such as giving somebody a”renqing”(song renqing) owing somebody a “renqing”(qian renqing) ect.
Li
“renqing”is related to another Confucian concept “li”.”li”in above when I talk about Confucius philosophy. Here I should add that “li”in Chinese has many meanings in English expression such as “etiquette”,”decorum”,”protocol”,”rites”,”proprlety”,”ceremony”,”rule of conduct”,”courtesy”,”politeness”, and so on. In Confucius’s time, however, the term”li”originally referred to “the social hierarchy and order of the salvery system of the Zhou Dynasty (dating back to 100 B.C.), which regarded by Confucius as an ideal model of any society. It was not until the publication of the book “liiji”(On li )200 or 300 years after Confucius that the current meanings of “li”came into use.
Confucianism stresses responsibility of individuals, who must behave according to certain prescribed principles of “li”.”li”.”li”dictes the man-ner in which Chinese position themselves in hierarchical society and perform their roles accordingly. Therefore,”li”can be understood as doing the proper things with the right people in the appropriate relationships.
