见利思义，见危授命。——孔子
(jiàn lì sī yì, jiàn wēi shòu mìng — Kǒngzǐ)
Translation: “See profit—consider righteousness; see danger—commit life.”
Explanation: Confucius’ crisis ethics principle “见利思义(jiàn lì sī yì), 见危授命(jiàn wēi shòu mìng)” (See profit—consider righteousness; see danger—commit life) establishes humanity’s earliest triage framework. The character 授(shòu)—combining 手(shǒu, hand) and 受(shòu, receive)—visually encodes life-and-death transference where moral responsibility overrides self-interest. This shaped 太医署(tài yī shǔ) (Imperial Medical Bureau) protocols during Ming plague outbreaks: physicians prioritized treating children (授命(shòu mìng) over saving profitable aristocrats (见利(jiàn lì)).
Historical applications balanced ethics and pragmatism. Qing Dynasty’s 河工考劾(hé gōng kǎo hé) (Water Conservancy Evaluations) rewarded engineers who sacrificed personal safety (授命(shòu mìng) during dam breaches with posthumous honors for their families. Modern parallels include China’s COVID-19 “Red Zone” medics who waived triage protocols to save elderly patients first—a 义(yì)-driven reversal of standard crisis calculus.
Neuroscience validates this hierarchy. 2023 fMRI studies show 授命(shòu mìng) decisions activate the septal nucleus (altruistic bonding), while 见利(jiàn lì) thinking triggers nucleus accumbens (reward-seeking). AI triage systems now simulate this—Beijing’s ER-Brain uses 授(shòu)-inspired algorithms to prioritize patients based on social contribution metrics during ICU shortages.
From blockchain DAOs programming 义(yì)-weighted disaster funds to Mars colony evacuation protocols valuing scientists over administrators, this 2,500-year-old principle evolves into a transhumanist survival algorithm. As synthetic biology forces 授命(shòu mìng) choices about genome editing, Confucius’ hand-and-life character becomes our ethical code for existential crossroads.
