ch’üan Chinese term for a key Confucian concept that may be rendered as meaning ‘weighing of circumstances’, ‘exigency’, or ‘moral discretion’. A metaphorical extension of the basic sense of a steelyard for measuring weight, ch’üan essentially pertains to assessment of the importance of moral considerations to a current matter of concern. Alternatively, the exercise of ch’üan consists in a judgment of the comparative importance of competing options answering to a current problematic situation. The judgment must accord with li (principle, reason), i.e., be a principled or reasoned judgment. In the sense of exigency, ch’üan is a hard case, i.e., one falling outside the normal scope of the operation of standards of conduct. In the sense of ‘moral discretion’, ch’üan must conform to the requirement of i (rightness). See also CONFUCIANIS. A.S.C.