[KS] Please help me find citations and resources for the concept of 정 (jeong), thank you.

Isabelle Sancho isabellesancho at noos.fr
Wed Nov 16 15:55:12 EST 2011


Hi Knigel,

 

A few random remarks on the ‘pre-modern’ meanings of chòng:

 

The notion of 정 情 is quite complex and it is related to both aesthetics and ethics. 

 

Originally, in ancient Chinese texts (pre-imperial corpus), it usually meant the distinctive characteristics of one thing/being/notion. The chòng of something is what allows to define and then to name it. Here ‘to name’ is the translation of 謂 (rather than 名 which is related to 事 – one name is related to one reality). The chòng are the deep tendencies rooted in the very nature of one thing/being. A shift in the chòng leads indeed to a shift of the nature of that thing/being. ‘Emotions’ (which is the later common meaning of the term chòng) are only part of those ‘constitutive elements’ of the nature of something/somebody.

Cf. the use of the term in Zhuangzi 莊子 and Xunzi 荀子 as for example.

 

After the Han times but also after ‘the Buddhist conquest’, chòng commonly meant ‘emotions’, the stirrings or moves of the heart/mind (심 心). The locus classicus of the problematic of chòng in Confucianism certainly comes from the canonical part of the Doctrine of the Mean (중용 中庸), one of the Four Books of Neo-Confucianism. Originally one chapter of the Book of Rites (Liji 禮記), this text has been unearthed by Zhu Xi and supplemented the Great Learning (another chapter of the Liji), the Analects of Confucius and the Mencius to form a new canonical corpus for Neo-Confucian scholars-officials. The Neo-Confucian well-known focus on (not to say recurring obsession with) emotions, heart/mind, human nature, etc (which is notably illustrated by the so-called Four/Seven debate in Korea) derives from that encounter with Buddhist speculations and rhetoric on the heart/mind. The Confucian response to the Buddhist challenge is to talk about the activities/functioning of the heart-mind –among which chòng– in ethical terms. ‘Self-cultivation’ implies – among other tasks- to work on one’s chòng.   

 

Here is the ‘canonical quotation’ from the Doctrine of the Mean (there is no literal, explicit mention to the chòng, but you must know this quotation in order to fully grasp the meaning of chòng):

 

天命之謂性,率性之謂道,修道之謂教。道也者,不可須臾離也,可離非道也。是故君子戒慎乎其所不睹,恐懼乎其所不聞。莫見乎隱,莫顯乎微,故君子慎其獨也。喜怒哀樂之未發,謂之中;發而皆中節,謂之和。中也者,天下之大本也;和也者,天下之達道也。致中和,天地位焉,萬物育焉。

“By the term ‘nature’ we speak of that which is imparted by the ordinance of Heaven, by ‘the Way’ we mean that path which is in conformance with the intrinsic nature of man and things; and by ‘moral instruction’ we refer to the process of cultivating man’s proper way in the world. What we take to be ‘the Way’ does not admit of the slightest degree of separation therefrom, even for an instant. For that which does admit of such separation is thereby disqualified from being the true Way. Given this understanding, the man of noble character exercises utmost restraint and vigilance towards that which is inaccessible to his own vision, and he regards with fear and trembling that which is beyond the reach of his own hearing. For, ultimately, nothing is more visible than what appears to be hidden, and nothing is more manifest than matters of imperceptible subtlety. For this reason, the man of noble character pays great heed to the core of his own individuality. It is only to that state of latency within which the four archetypal markers of human experience: joy, wrath, grief, and delight have not yet emerged into concrete manifestation that we may properly attribute the perfectly centred balance of the ‘mean’. Once these markers have emerged into reality, in such manner that they remain in balance and in due proportion, we may then speak of them as being in state of ‘harmony’. What is here termed the ‘mean’ constitutes the all-inclusive ground of being of the universe as a cosmic whole, whereas the term ‘harmony’ refers to the unimpeded path of fullest attainment in the world of human experience. When the attributes of both the balanced mean and harmony are realized to their fullest extent, then Heaven and Earth assume on this ground their proper cosmic positions and the regenerative processes of all the myriad creatures are sustained therein” (translation Andrew Plaks, Ta Hsüeh and ChungYung. The Highest Order of Cultivation and On the Practice of the Mean, Penguin Classics, London, 2003)

 

In Korea, you will of course find a very extensive literature on the topic of chòng in various Confucian literati’s munjip. There are also a few studies in English.

 

I hope that this will help,

All the best,

 

Isabelle Sancho

CNRS-EHESS 

 

 

De : koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws [mailto:koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws] De la part de Kevin O'Rourke
Envoyé : mercredi 16 novembre 2011 20:12
À : koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
Objet : Re: [KS] Please help me find citations and resources for the concept of 정 (jeong), thank you.

 

Ki Taesung (1527-1572), pupil of Yi T’oegye and noted teacher in his own right – Chong Ch’ol studied under his tutelage - explained the world in terms of ch$ong (feeling) and ki (energy). Poetry, he said, has to do with ch$ong. This was radical thinking.
 
Kevin


 

  _____  

Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:04:21 +0900
From: i at knigel.com
To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
Subject: [KS] Please help me find citations and resources for the concept of 정 (jeong), thank you.

I have been interested in Jeong for a long while now and would like to put together an essay to help other foreigners understand the concept. I understand the basic idea, but I want to deepen my knowledge with research. I would appreciate research from any field—the more objective, the better. Thank you very much for your help.

Kindness,
Knigel

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