공맹 정감론의 계승과 발전 : “심정(心情)”에서 “성정(性情)”으로 = The Succession and Development of the Confucian-Mencian Theory of Emotion: From “Heart-Feeling (Xin-Qing)” to “Nature-Feeling (Xing-Qing)”

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper examines the succession and developmental relationship between the Pre-Qin Confucian theories of emotion, focusing on the transition from “Heart-Feeling (Xin-Qing 心情)” to “Nature-Feeling (Xing-Qing 性情).” While Song Dynasty Neo-Confucianism hierarchically structured “nature (Xing 性)” as substance and “emotion (Qing 情)” as its manifestation, thereby relegating emotion to the shadow of substance, for Confucius and Mencius, emotion was not a passive concept derived from substance but rather the starting point of philosophy and the foundation of moral practice. Confucius expanded the heaven-centered moral discourse to all human individuals and argued for the practice of benevolence (Ren 仁) through emotional activities of the mind (Xin 心). His theory of emotion, characterized as “Heart-Feeling (Xin-Qing),” encompasses both the possibility of benevolence and non-benevolence. Mencius succeeded this by exploring the origin of mental activities and defined the four moral feeling―compassion, shame, modesty, and discernment of right and wrong―as the essence of human nature. His theory of emotion, characterized as “Nature-Feeling (Xing-Qing),” argues that by cultivating these innate moral feelings, one can achieve the virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom. Through this analysis, we can confirm that Confucius’s structure, in which “benevolent feeling is determined by the activity of the mind,” was progressively succeeded by Mencius’s system, in which “benevolent feeling is determined by innate moral nature.”