The figure the texts use for a person who gets it right — not a moral paragon but someone whose conduct matches the way things actually work. In Suwen 2 the sage is the one who follows the seasons and treats illness before it exists.
The graph is built on 耳, ear, over 呈: to hear through. The sage is the person who perceives what is going on, and therefore does the right thing without being told.
Note where the emphasis falls in these two chapters. The sage is not credited with unusual powers but with ordinary compliance: he nourishes yang in spring and summer, and he treats illness before it is there.
Passages where the term does real work, with the original, pinyin and English on the same line.
Every rendering below is a decision about which reader is being addressed. There is no neutral option.
Search the glossary
Reading path
This term belongs to Foundations — the five core concepts, in the order the Suwen introduces them.