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The Original Analects

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THE WAY OF REN: 

The traditional culture

The individual perspective

The realization

TIAN
[Heaven]

DE
excellence

DAO
the way

The Master said: "How great indeed was Yao as a ruler! How majestic! Only tian is truly great, and only Yao took it as his model. How majestic was he in his accomplishments, and how brilliant was he in his cultural achievements." (8:19)

"To take doing one's utmost (zhong), making good on one's word (xin), and seeking what is appropriate (yi) as one's main concerns, is to accumulate excellence." (12:10) t

The Master said: "It is the person that broadens the way, not the way that broadens the person."  (15:29)

LI
ritual propriety

YI
appropriateness

REN
authoritative conduct

The Master said: "Having a sense of appropriate conduct as one's basic disposition, developing it in observing ritual propriety... this is the exemplary person (junzi)."(15:18)   

Fan Chi inquired about authoritative conduct, and the Master said, "Love others"... (12:22)

XUE
learning

SI
reflection

ZHI
to realize

The Master said: "Learning without due reflection leads to perplexity, reflection without learning leads to perilous circumstances." (2:15)

...He inquired about realizing, and the Master said, "realize others." (12:22)

"Tian is the source of meaningfulness, not in the sense of an eternal repository of pure possibilities; rather, tian encompasses the traditional past as the cumulated products of human activity. De is the particular excellence of an individual within his or her context, not as an essential [absolute] given but as a realized perspective upon things which at one and the same time centers the individual and focuses his or her context. Dao is emergent from the actions of persons whose self-realization is such that they are able to serve as peculiarly intense foci of meaning and value. And such persons have a determining influence on the ming [propensities] of tian.

Tian ming [the propensities of tian], de, and dao are related, as are xue [learning], si [reflection], and zhi [to realize]- the appropriation of the givenness of tradition, reflective activity, and realization, or as are li [ritual propriety], yi [appropriateness], and ren [authoritative conduct]- the established rites, the derivation and bestowal of meaning through acts of signification, and the attainment of authoritative humanity.
Confucius' cosmology is a generalized sociology, a vision of the manner in which human beings emerge within a social context grounded in tradition, while remaining open to novel articulations insofar as these might be called for by the ming [propensities]of present circumstances."
Hall & Ames, in: Thinking Through Confucius, p. 248.
Translations: Ames & Rosemont: The Analects of Confucius, A Philosophical Translation.
(Cited with permission; I have added the words in brackets.) 1