Author ｜
Ke Zhang
Abstract ｜
There are many examples in ancient Chinese literature where the words “ci 慈” and “shan 善” are used together, and its meaning was mostly to describe the benevolent and kind-hearted personal qualities. “cishan 慈善” in modern times is a new two-character term, which means social behaviors and careers of helping the weak, which is different from the ancient usage. The new word “cishan” in Chinese originates from Japanese homographs of Chinese characters. The current meaning of the word in Japanese originated in the 1880s and was established as the Japanese counterpart of “charity” and its synonyms in English in the 1890s. The new word “cishan” in Chinese began to be used on a large scale in the early 20th century.
keywords ｜
charity, benevolence, public welfare, new terms, conceptual history