情

• Pinyin: qíng
• Hanzi breakdown: 情 = 忄(heart) + 青 (pure/youthful, phonetic)

Meaning

Emotion; feeling; sentiment; love. The broad term for the affective dimension of human experience, encompassing love, longing, grief, and joy.

Appears in many core compounds: 爱情, 友情, 亲情, 感情, 情感, 心情, 情绪. In classical poetry and literature 情 represents the highest artistic theme, bridging personal emotion and the deeper philosophical questions of human nature.

Examples

1. 这首古诗字字含情，将诗人内心深处的孤寂与对故土的依恋刻画得淋漓尽致。 Every line of this ancient poem is filled with feeling, vividly portraying the poet’s deep loneliness and longing for his homeland.
2. 他虽不善言辞，却总以细致入微的行动向家人传递内心真挚深沉的情。 He isn’t good with words, but he always conveys his sincere, deep feelings to his family through thoughtful actions.
3. 人世间的悲欢离合，无不因情而生、因情而灭，情是人类最本真的力量之一。 All of life’s joys and sorrows, reunions and separations arise from emotion and fade with it—emotion is one of humanity’s most fundamental forces.

Usage Guide

Context: literature, relationships, philosophy, poetry

Tone: warm

Do Say

• 文学作品之所以能打动人心，在于作者能将真实的情融入每一个字里行间。(Literary works move people because the author is able to weave genuine feeling into every word and line.)
• 人与人之间若缺少了情，往来便会流于冷漠的利益交换，失去所有温度。(If interactions between people lack feeling, they devolve into cold exchanges of interest and lose all warmth.)

Don't Say

• 他的工作很有情 — use 热情 or 感情投入 for passionate dedication at work; standalone 情 here is grammatically incomplete and sounds unnatural in modern prose

Origin & History

情 = 忄(heart radical) + 青 (pure/youthful, phonetic) — the feeling that dwells in the heart

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal