hsin1 Chinese term meaning ‘heart’, ‘mind’, ‘feeling’. Generally, the hsin is both the physical organ we call the heart, and the faculty of appetition, cognition, and emotion, but the precise nature and proper role of hsin is one of the fundamental issues dividing Chinese philosophers. Mencius speaks of ‘four hearts,’ associating a particular virtue and set of emotional and cognitive capacities with each. Chuang Tzu suggests that we ‘fast’ (chai), rather than cultivate, the hsin, letting ourselves be guided instead by the ch’i. Hsün Tzu holds that the hsin should control and sublimate the desires. In Neo-Confucianism, the hsin is conceived as a fully developed moral sense, present in every human, whose proper functioning is obscured by selfish desires. Neo- Confucians differ over whether hsin is identical with principle (li) and nature (hsing). See also CONFUCIANISM , LI 1, MENCIUS , NEO -CONFU – CIANIS. B.W.V.N.