儒 (rú) · Confucianism; Confucian school

Meanings

1 Confucianism; Confucian school
2 scholar; learned person

Characters

儒

rú

Confucian; scholar

Examples

HSK 4

他是一位通儒。

Tā shì yí wèi tōng rú.

He is a learned (broadly knowledgeable) scholar.

HSK 5

儒家思想影响中国两千多年。

Rújiā sīxiǎng yǐngxiǎng Zhōngguó liǎngqiān duō nián.

Confucian thought has influenced China for over two thousand years.

Tips

history

儒 originally meant "scholar-ritualist" - Spring-and-Autumn-era specialists in poetry, ritual, music, and divination. 孔子 (Confucius, 551-479 BCE) elevated their tradition into a coherent ethical-political philosophy, after which 儒 came to mean "Confucian." Modern compounds: 儒家 (the Confucian school), 儒学 (Confucian studies), 儒生 (a Confucian scholar).

memory

Radical 亻 (person) + 需 (need) - visualize the kind of person society needs: the scholar.

Components

radical

亻 rén

person (radical form of 人)

Side-person radical on the left - marks 儒 as referring to a kind of person: the scholar, the Confucian gentleman. The 亻 radical heads almost every social-role character (仁 humane, 信 trustworthy, 师 teacher's variant), placing the Confucian sage right in the heart of how Chinese culture catalogues human types.

phonetic

需 xū

to need; necessity

Right 需 supplies the sound - xū to rú via palatalization in the old initial. Meaning also fits: 需 originally pictured someone waiting in the rain (雨 over 而) and meant 'to await, to need.' A Confucian scholar is precisely 'the person society needs,' the keeper of ritual called upon when guidance is required.