The Dynamic Characteristics of “Jeong 情”: A New Perspective on the Korean Neo-Confucian Four–Seven Debate

This article aims to elucidate the semantic gap between Jeong 情, discussed in traditional Confucian intellectual society, and 정, understood as a conceptual cluster contemporary Korean language life. During period when Joseon Korea was converted into Confucianism, part of centrality native word, tteut, shifted jeong, naturalized word. In other words, “jeong” has grown new concept with relation emotional aspect mind, while “tteut” still remains associated mind. phenomenon could be related spread sharing discourse on various emotions represented by “sadan 四端” “chiljeong 七情” literature. As discussion Four–Seven continued, vocabulary extracted from Chinese literature reconstructed reflecting people’s pursuit understanding emotions. From this, we can evaluate that debate not only contributed elaboration Neo-Confucian emotion theory, but it also developed direction moral social values implied “jeong”.