Or jeong. That’s the Korean word/concept at the center of this brilliant post by Stavros (of the always worthwhile Emptybottle.org). If anyone out there knows the Chinese etymological equivalent so that I can find out more about the word (Korean isn’t my strong point), please let me know, but everyone should go and read the essay on sentimentality, Jung, jeong, love, Korea, and all that jive.
Update. OK, I went to the Donnell branch during my lunch hour and determined that the Chinese equivalent is ch’ing (or qing; heart radical plus ch’ing ‘blue/green’ phonetic) ‘feeling, emotion, sentiment, &c. &c.’; the Japanese derivative is jo (long o), defined the same way. So now my question is, does anyone out there know enough about the three languages, or any two of them, to give an idea of how the specific usages of these superficially identical words differ?
Thank you, kind sir.