Sanctification

CRITICAL: 成圣 (‘becoming a sage/holy one’) is itself a technical term in Neo-Confucian philosophy (Zhu Xi, Wang Yangming) for the process of self-cultivation by which a person perfects their innate moral nature into sagehood through personal effort. The Christian term is a direct borrowing of this phrase. Every occurrence requires a clarifying note: biblical sanctification is the Holy Spirit’s ongoing work in a believer already justified by faith, not self-achieved moral perfection (修身, ‘cultivating the self’) attained by discipline or technique (修炼, associated with Daoist/qigong practice).