Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Ressentiment and Love: Nietzsche, Scheler and Asano

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Tetsugaku Companion to Feeling

Part of the book series: Tetsugaku Companions to Japanese Philosophy ((TCJP,volume 6))

  • 42 Accesses

Abstract

Ressentiment can be regarded as one of the most complicated feelings of human beings. It is a French foreign-loan word which is used as a noun, but originated from the verb ressentir, which means to feel, to experience or be aware of an emotion or sensation. As in the cases of many other European notions, ressentiment obtained an interesting profile when it traveled from the “West” to the “East.” While the word is usually untranslated in German and English, in Chinese it is translated into two characters, namely, 怨恨 (pronounced as yuàn hèn in Mandarin, and enkon in Japanese). As in the cases of many other vocabularies, yuàn hèn or enkon is a combination of two Chinese characters with similar meanings: 怨 yuàn or en means to rankle, to grudge, to blame, to reproach, to complain or to satirize; 恨 hèn or kon means to hate, to dislike, to resent or to regret.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=怨

  2. 2.

    http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=恨

  3. 3.

    Tanaka 1937, p. 181. Translation mine. The original text in Japanese is 遺恨 (ルサンチマン)とは如何なる真理であり、如何なる原理に由来し、如何なる形態をとって現れるのであろうか。遺恨は一方では復讐、憎悪、悪意、嫉妬、妬忌、陰険などの心を内に抱き乍らも、それを表面に現はさないで秘かに持ち続ける結果、ある種の倒錯した価値意識を持続的に取る様になった態度を云う。

  4. 4.

    Nietzsche 1967, p. 5.

  5. 5.

    Ibid., p. 36.

  6. 6.

    Ibid., pp. 36–37.

  7. 7.

    Ibid., p. 37.

  8. 8.

    Ibid., pp. 38–39

  9. 9.

    I would like to thank Prof. Iwaya Makoto, who taught me this expression in his seminar on Max Scheler.

  10. 10.

    Scheler 1961, p. 45.

  11. 11.

    https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=ressentiment&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=31&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cressentiment%3B%2Cc0

  12. 12.

    Ibid., p. 43.

  13. 13.

    Ibid., 48.

  14. 14.

    Ibid., 73.

  15. 15.

    Ibid., 65.

  16. 16.

    Ibid., 68.

  17. 17.

    Ibid., 84–5.

  18. 18.

    Ibid., 86.

  19. 19.

    Ibid., 88.

  20. 20.

    Ibid., p. 50.

  21. 21.

    Asano also uses the word 「復讐心」(the heart to revenge) to translate 「ルサンチマン」. See Asano 1999, p. 9.

  22. 22.

    Asano 1999, p. 280.

  23. 23.

    English translation from Legge 1960.

  24. 24.

    Elsewhere, 勞而不怨 is translated as “lay[ing] tasks on the people without their repining”.

  25. 25.

    Legge 1960. Emphasis mine.

  26. 26.

    Ibid.

  27. 27.

    https://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/26/magazine/japan-s-imperial-present.html

  28. 28.

    Takahashi 1973, 202.

  29. 29.

    Scheler 1961, p. 86.

  30. 30.

    Takahashi 1973, p. 226.

  31. 31.

    Ibid., pp. 231–232.

  32. 32.

    Ibid., p. 247.

  33. 33.

    Scheler 1973, pp. 110–111.

  34. 34.

    Ibid., p. 100.

  35. 35.

    Marra 2004, 149.

  36. 36.

    いたはりつつ

    且つ励ましし

    恩愛に

    思ひ到れば

    荒き涙あり

  37. 37.

    塀の外を

    かけゆく吾の

    幼児に

    気をつけくるる

    どなたの声か

  38. 38.

    Marra 2004, 149.

  39. 39.

    この四五日

    人に関はる

    怒りありて

    感冒荒の咽喉に

    まづき飯食ふ

  40. 40.

    腹立ちて

    早寝せし

    我が枕辺に

    妻は着物を

    縫ひ初めたり

  41. 41.

    Marra 2004, 150.

  42. 42.

    母は誰も

    うらまず責めず

    目を瞑ぢぬ

    わが十一の

    秋寒き夜に

  43. 43.

    おもひつくし

    恨みつくして

    長き夜の

    あかつきくらく

    出でてゐし月

References

  • Asano, Yuichi 浅野裕一. 1999. 『儒教―ルサンチマンの宗教』 (Confucianism-A Religion of Ressenitment). Tokyo: Heibonsha.

    Google Scholar 

  • Legge, James 1960. The Chinese classics. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marra, F. Michael 2004. Kuki Shūzō: A Philosopher’s Poetry and Poetics. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nietzsche, Friedrich 1967. On the Genealogy of Morals/Ecce Homo. New York: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scheler, Max 1961. Ressentiment. New York: Freeman Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1973. Selected Philosophical Essays. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Takahashi, Satomi 高橋里美. 1973. 『高橋里美全集』[Complete Works of Takahashi Satomi]. Tokyo: Fukumura Shuppan. Vol. 5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tanaka, Hiroshi 田中煕. 1937. 『マクス・シェーラー』 (Max Scheler). Tokyo: Kobundo.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Cheung Ching Yuen

Authors
  1. Cheung Ching Yuen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cheung Ching Yuen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy Graduate School of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

    Kido Atsushi

  2. Department of Philosophy Graduate School of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

    Noe Keiichi

  3. Faculty of International Liberal Arts, Dokkyo University, Soka-shi, Saitama, Japan

    Lam Wing Keung

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Ching Yuen, C. (2024). Ressentiment and Love: Nietzsche, Scheler and Asano. In: Atsushi, K., Keiichi, N., Wing Keung, L. (eds) Tetsugaku Companion to Feeling. Tetsugaku Companions to Japanese Philosophy, vol 6. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42186-0_9

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation