Cheng

In early Confucian writings, cheng describes the quality of authentically realizing or 'completing' a given thing's true nature. It appears together with xin (trustworthiness), a character to which it is related in sense. Cheng refers primarily to the fulfilment of a thing's true nature, while xin refers to the quality resulting from this. With regard to human beings, cheng is the authentic realization of ones nature. In texts such as the Xunzi and Zhongyong, the idea is related to the role human beings are believed to play in realizing or 'completing' a greater universal pattern. This development becomes centrally important for later neo-Confucian thinkers, who see these as different aspects of a single project. Cheng ('integrity' or 'sincerity') is not a central term of art for Confucius, but it takes on greater significance in the thought of Mencius and Xunzi. According to the Mengzi (4A12), cheng requires an understanding of the good. One cannot be cheng unless one understands why one is acting as one does. To be cheng is to be true to one's self, that is, one's true nature (hence 'sincerity'). Thus cheng is necessary for the cultivation of genuine virtue. Since such self-cultivation results in the most satisfying of lives (Self-cultivation, Chinese theories of), there is no greater joy than to find that one is cheng.