TERMBASES
The first of these two Chinese characters means simple and
honest. The second one means sparing of words. People should embrace moral
standards with all their hearts rather than cultivate an ostentatious
appearance in an attempt to seek fame and gain. To be simple and sparing of
words underscores a determination to reject vanity, avoid pretentious behavior
and rhetoric, and to concentrate on cultivating one’s moral character. Confucian scholars regard being simple and honest and sparing of words as an important
virtue, close to what is required for being benevolent. In this particular
context, being “simple and sparing of words” has no connotation of
dull-mindedness or being reticent.