This concept means to observe and understand things in accordance with their own characteristics. It is a way of observing and understanding things proposed by Shao Yong (1011-1077), a neo-Confucian philosopher of the Song Dynasty. According to him, in the process of observing and understanding things, people often form likes and dislikes for things based on their own subjective consciousness, which affects their understanding of the true nature of things. Therefore, he proposed the idea of observing things based on their own features, believing that people should adopt a calm attitude to remove the influence of subjective consciousness and observe things in accordance with their own characteristics to truly understand them as they are.

Observing things based on their own characteristics is the embodiment of natural instinct, while observing things based on one’s own awareness is the embodiment of emotion. Natural instinct is impartial and clear, while emotions are biased and obscure. (Collected Works of Shao Yong)