*4.2. Chengjing*

Both Mou Zongsan and Xu Fuguan, who have paid grea<sup>t</sup> attention to the concept of *jing* (reverence), assert that although *jing* appears to denote religious piety, it in fact signifies human subjectivity and rationality (Mou 1984, p. 20; Xu 2009, p. 22). Mou and Xu seem to mix the religious-ritual origin of *jing* with its ethical-psychological extension in Zhou ritual propriety and classical Confucian ethical theory. In sacrificial rituals, with its connection to *cheng*2, *jing* did denote pietistic emotion and attitude toward heaven and the spirits, as discussed above. This kind of religious emotion and attitude was then extended in Zhou ritual propriety to one's sincere reverence toward elders and superiors (Chen 2006, pp. 343–45). In the Confucian classics, *jing* developed more ethical and psychological implications, such as sincere reverence toward one's parents and devotional reverence toward one's service (Analects, 2.7, 4.18, 13.19, 15.38; Wang 1988, 20.529-33). As a result, *cheng* and *jing* were often used together or combined to form the compound *chengjing* (sincere reverence). For example, Cheng Hao emphasized that *chengjing* was the essential moral emotion and attitude for observing all five of the constant virtues (Huang 1846, 13.5a–6b).
