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

[Barbara Wall]

Hi Knigel,

it might help you to compare Plaks' translation with Ames' and Hall's translation of the Zhongyong "Focusing the Familiar: A Translation and Philosophical Interpretation of the Zhongyong". 


All the best, 

Barbara Wall
Ruhr-University Bochum
 

From: isabellesancho at noos.fr
To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2011 21:55:12 +0100
Subject: Re: [KS]	Please help me find citations and resources for the concept of 정 (jeong), thank you.



















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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