In Confucian thought, qing is interpreted as the behavioural quality of a person given their context, which may be bettered through the cultivation of ren (humaneness), li (ritual propriety), and yi (righteousness) to build de, or virtuous moral character.
[1] Confucian scholars, such as Han Yu, traditionally identified seven basic emotions (七情 qīqíng),[2] named in the Book of Rites as happiness (喜), anger (怒), grief (哀), fear (懼), love (愛), hate (惡), and desire (欲).
[3][4] Neo-Confucians understand qing as products of environmental circumstances affecting xing, or innate human nature.
[2] This interpretation of qing as an emotional concept, especially as connected to xing, arose after the Warring States period.
Writing in the Korea Times, scholar and cultural critic David Tizzard describes jeong as an "invisible hug" and says that it often manifests in acts of service and gift-giving among people: "In Korea, you learn to both give and receive.