誠

Operates across two primary axes:

• Ethical/Interpersonal: Sincerity, earnestness, trustworthiness, and integrity. It implies a positive alignment between an internal state and external expression, or a commitment to reliability.
• Ontological: Truth, reality, and validity. Refers to truth validated by consistency or fulfillment—that which is "real" because it corresponds to its claim.

• Noun/Adjective: Used as "sincerity" or "sincere."
• Adverbial/Confirmative: Often appears in compounds (e.g., 誠然) to function as "indeed" or "truly," serving as a bridge between a claim and its verification.

Contrast with 真: While both can mean "true" or "real," 真 typically denotes objective or factual authenticity, whereas 誠 denotes validity through consistency, integrity, or the fulfillment of a promise.

• Early usage focuses on the reliability of speech and action—the correspondence between what is said and what is done.
• Later Neo-Confucian usage expands the term into a metaphysical or cosmic principle, referring to the fundamental nature of the universe or an ontological alignment with the Dao.
• Simplified variant: 诚 (U+8BDA).

Composed of 言 (“speech”) and 成 (“complete/fulfill”), underscoring the sense of "speech made real."

Translators should distinguish between usage as a social expectation (the act of keeping one's word) and usage as a moral virtue (personal integrity).