Classical Chinese · Chinese philosophy
xin
心
Heard as shin (Mandarin xīn)
- Period
- Warring States onward
- Semantic range
- Heart-mind: thinking, knowing, desire, emotion, intention, ethical cultivation.
- What it can mean
- The organ and process that guides a person, integrating affect and cognition.
- What it should not be equated with
- Not the ancient Chinese word for consciousness. Its importance is the different partition.
- Primary or early source
- Mengzi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, later Wang Yangming.
- Scholarly source
- SEP Mind (Heart-Mind) in Chinese Philosophy.
- Relation to other terms
- A parallel territory. Heart and mind were not two words that later needed joining.