人性
rénxìng · HSK 7
nature
🧑 人 person + 性 nature = human nature; the disposition built into people
人 (rén, person) plus 性 (xìng, nature or character) literally reads person-nature. It names the qualities common to all people — feelings, reason, decency — so a cruel act gets called inhuman, lacking 人性.
人 — pictograph of a standing person
人 is a pictograph showing a person viewed from the side, with two strokes representing the legs and torso of a standing human. In oracle bone script it clearly depicted a figure leaning slightly forward. The meaning has remained 'person' or 'human' throughout its history.
性 — heart radical 忄 + 生 (life/birth)
性 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The heart radical 忄 supplies the meaning, pointing to inner feelings or innate qualities, while 生 ('birth, life') gives the sound and hints at what one is born with. It originally meant 'inborn nature' and later extended to 'character,' 'gender,' and 'sex.'