When they first arrived at the orphanage, no one knew which child was older. The matron was the one who decided that it should be Ren, and she named him accordingly, Ren being the greatest of the five Confucian Virtues. It means human-heartedness: the benevolence that distinguishes man from beast. The perfect man, according to Confucius, should be willing to die to preserve this. Ren think that if he had a choice he’d rather have died to save Yi.
-- Narrator focalized through Ren (chapter 7 paragraph 5)

Importance: Here, the meaning and origin of Ren’s name is viewed through a high resolution lens for the first time. Ren’s human-heartedness both helps and hurts him throughout the novel, at times making him naïve, at other times making him courageous. He lives up to his name more virtuously and consistently than any of the other five, which proves almost to be his undoing. But his overwhelming humanity...