Many visceral reasons you cry - the face of an abandoned puppy, a baby calling out for his mommy, little hungry faces in foreign lands and right here in America.Something bad does randomly happen to good people, and you may find yourself feeling tender pity. Would you rather call it compassion? Schadenfreude has no place here.
There are 4 perimeters (四端) of ethical feelings that Mencius claimed resulted from our basic instincts. 仁 (benevolence), 義 (virtue), 禮 (rite), 知 (wisdom).
Some people call these predispositions "sprouts". 端 is an interesting character which can mean the beginning or the end, the clue or the reason, the sign or the solution, the onset or the limit. (Not quite the alpha and the omega). I am calling it the "perimeter" for now until I think of a better word.
1) 惻隱之心 sympathy for others' hardships
惻 (pity) 隱 (conceal) 之 ('s) 心 (heart)
2) 羞惡之心 embarrassed by one's own lack of rectitude and resentful of others' vice
羞 (embarrassment) 惡 (evil) 之 ('s) 心 (heart)
3) 辭讓之心 humility, willingness to yield
辭 (express) 讓 (concede) 之 ('s) 心 (heart)
4) 是非之心 knowing what's right and wrong
是 (right) 非 (wrong) 之 ('s) 心 (heart)***
GM will be filing for bankruptcy, Chrysler is idling its plants for at least a month. What we feel is 惻隱之心, and perhaps all of the feelings above.
Let's hope for a spectacular rebirth.
***
photo from Cross Country Kitties
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