shenn.

1847 W. H. Medhurst Diss. Theol. Chinese 5 It would appear, that..Shîn and..Kweí, are terms equivalent to spirit and anima, in the human system.

1901 J. J. M. de Groot Relig. Syst. China IV. ii. i. i. 4 Confucius means to say, the shen manifests itself in its full development in man by his khi or ‘breath’; indeed, only animated man lives and breathes.

1905 E. H. Parker China & Relig. i. 21 The spirits of men were called kwei, and those of Heaven and Nature shên.

1934 A. D. Waley Way & its Power 29 ‘If the monarch loses his shên,’ says Han Fei Tzû, ‘the tigers will soon be on his tracks.’

1955 E. Herbert Taoist Notebk. 43 Thus Mencius in his moral hierarchy posited two grades—the ‘spirit-like’ (Shên), the saint beyond man's power of comprehension.

1978 F. Mann Acupuncture (ed. 3) iv. 32 Shen is usually translated as ‘spirit’, a word which to the Western mind more often than not suggests the supernatural. But Shen..is a down-to-earth word.