Rentian Zhu

My given name, 任天 (Rèntiān), is short for 自任以天下之重: to take the weight of all under Heaven upon oneself. The phrase is Mencius's description of Yi Yin, the minister who left a quiet life in the fields to serve Tang and relieve the people:

思天下之民匹夫匹婦有不被堯舜之澤者，若己推而內之溝中。其自任以天下之重如此。《孟子·萬章上》

He thought that among all the people of the kingdom, even the private men and women, if there were any who did not enjoy such benefits as Yao and Shun conferred, it was as if he himself pushed them into a ditch. He took upon himself the heavy charge of the kingdom in this way.Mencius, Wan Zhang I, 7. Translated by James Legge, The Works of Mencius (1861)

Mencius returns to the line when he ranks the sages: Bo Yi was the sage of purity, Liu Xiahui the sage of harmony, and Yi Yin 聖之任者, in Legge's rendering “the one most inclined to take office”, the sage who shouldered responsibility (《孟子·萬章下》). The Analects carries the same idea in Zengzi's words, 士不可以不弘毅，任重而道遠: a scholar must be broad and resolute, for the burden is heavy and the road is long (《論語·泰伯》).

It is a large name to grow into. I take it as a reminder that economics is, in the end, about how people live.