The heart, a vital organ of life, underpins one's emotions, awareness, and value

judgments. Different from the ears, eyes, nose, and mouth, which sense the outer

world in a passive way, the heart is capable of thinking and performing intellectual

and moral evaluations on the basis of analyzing and sorting out what these

organs have sensed. Mencius believed that the heart consists of four aspects:

compassion, deference, sense of shame or detestation, and conscience. Preserving

and expanding one's good heart is the central aim in practicing moral teachings.

According to Daoism, a serene and uncluttered heart is the highest state for a

human being, much like a peaceful pool of still water. Such calmness is the way in

which the heart can capture the essence of all things in the world.