Taxonomy of meanings for 愛:　　

Additional information about 愛

說文解字:

Criteria
• LOVE
  

  1. The clearly dominant word referring to love is ài 愛 (ant. hèn 恨 "dislike"; rarely zēng 憎 "dislike"; and wù 惡 "hate"), and this word refers both to the feelings of love and to the expression of love in loving care for another person as well as in sexual relations. (Occasionally, the word may refer to the emotional preference that a small child feels for its parents. For this meaning see PREFER.)

  2. Cí 慈 (ant. xiōng 凶 "vicious") refers to loving care, prototypically by mothers for minors or their offspring. When the word refers to ordinary love, it always connotes a high degree of intensity of the caring emotion.

  3. Tì 悌 refers to love between brothers, particularly the love one owes one's eldest brother, and the word is rarely extended to mean brotherly as opposed to erotic or commiserating love.

  4. Xiào 孝 refers to loving respect for one's parents and ancestors in attitude and action, and is a major traditional virtue.

  5. Chǒng 寵 refers to enjoying the attentions and/or affections of a superior.

  6. Xìng 幸 "give sexual favours to (a subject)" and xìng yú 幸於 "enjoy the sexual favours of (a ruler) refer to love sexually expressed.

  7. Bì 嬖 refers to the enjoying of favourite status with a superior, and the term often connotes sexual relations, occasionally even of the homosexual kind.

  8. Mù 慕 prototypically refers to loving devotion of a distant kind, but the word is also used in a more generalised way to refer to affection.

  9. Hào 好 refers to love as a matter of a strong and habitual emotional preference for something. (See PREFER)

• PATRIOTISM
  

  The modern keyword 愛國 "patriotic" has an interesting history in China from ZGC-times onwards. 愛國心 "patriotism" comes in a poem by 汪懋麟 quoted in HYDCD.

• MUTUAL LOVE
  

  MO 相愛

• STINGY
  

  1. A4i 愛 refers to stinginess with respect to a certain item, or to a certain kind of items.

  2. The negative quality of stinginess is lìn 吝 (ant. POST-BUDDHIST kāng kǎi 慷慨 "generous (with friends)", and in pre-Buddhist times the less exact huì 惠 "generous (to inferiors)").

• LIKE
  

  1. The general words expressing preference is ài 愛, but the notion is often hard to distinguish from a preferential desire, and for the semantically closely related hào 好 see DESIRE.

  2. Nìng 寧 refers to subjective general preference.

  3. Bù rú 不如 refers to objective preferability "one should prefer to, one should rather". See also SHOULD.

• VIRTUE
  

  1. The current general term for salient features and principles of charismatic moral potency, integrity and generosity is dé 德, when used as a term of ethical evalutation.

  2. Other general terms for subjectively construed general moral commendation include měi 美 "point of moral distinction" (ant. è 惡 "point of moral decrepitude"), and occasionally gāo 高 "elevated points, elevated spirit" (ant. jiàn 賤 "point of vulgar decrepitude"). NB that shàn 善 "excellent" is not used as a general term of positive moral appreciation in pre-Buddhist texts.

  3. The most current dé 德 "virtues" recognised in pre-Buddhist China are rén 仁 "kind-heartedness", yì 義 "rectitude", lǐ 禮 "propriety", zhì 智 "wisdom", and xìn 信 "good faith".

  4. Further important virtues are xiào 孝 "filial piety", zhōng 忠 "loyal diligence", tì 悌 / 弟 "brotherly affection", lián 廉 "impeccable probity", jié 節 "moderation", and perhaps yǒng 勇 "the courage of one's moral convictions". ( 說苑 : 百行 (xìng) 孝為先 )

  5. Zhōng yōng 中庸 "the mean in action" may be mentioned as a a central Confucian virtue, jiān ài 兼愛 "unIversal love" as a Mohist virtue, wú wéi 無為 "unobtrusive action" as a non-moralistic Taoist virtue.

• HATE
  

  1. The dominant general word referring to intense dislike is wù 惡 (ant. ài 愛 "love") which can relate to all kinds of concrete or abstract objects.

  2. Yuàn 怨 is resentment due to identified concrete causes, and the emotion is typically directed towards superiors or equals.

  3. Zēng 憎 (ant. ài 愛 "love") is a rather mild and lingering form of resentment directed at a person.

  4. Jí 疾 / 嫉 can refer to intense personally focussed resentment.

  5. Jì 忌, jí 嫉, and dù 妒 refer to intense personal resentment typically occasioned by envy for some success in love (jealousy) or in politics.

  6. Hèn 恨 "nourish feelings of hatred" is relatively rare in this meaning in pre-Qin times, and it stresses the emotional aspect of hatred.

  7. Yàn 厭 "come to be fed up with" (ant. hào 好 "be fond of") is a resentment due to overexposure to some condition or to a person's behaviour.

  8. Fán 煩 "be irritated at, be annoyed with" refers to a dissatisfaction due to overexposure to some condition or to a person's behaviour.

  9. Kǔ 苦 "resent bitterly", huàn 患 "REGARD AS DISASTROUS> be upset by", and bìng 病 "feel profoundly offended" focus on resentment of some prevailing condition as insufferable and may be directed at responsible officials but not primarily in a personal way.

  10. Wàng 望 is archaising word typically referrring to resentment against superiors.

Word relations
• Ant: (LOVE)惡/HATE The dominant general word referring to intense dislike is wù 惡 (ant. ài 愛 "love") which can relate to all kinds of concrete or abstract objects. 3 Attributions
• Ant: (LOVE)憎/HATE Zēng 憎 (ant. ài 愛 "love") is a rather mild and lingering form of resentment directed at a person. 9 Attributions
• Ant: (LIKE)賤/HUMBLE Jiàn 賤 (ant. 貴 "objectively of high standard, but also personally and subjectively judged to deserve this high status") typically adds to the notion of objectively judged low status that of subjectively appreciated moral decrepitude. 1 Attribution
• Object: (LOVE)妃/CONCUBINE Fēi 妃 (ant. wáng 王 "king") refers to a royal concubine.
• Epithet: (LOVE)妾/CONCUBINE Qiè 妾 (ant. fū 夫 "husband") refers to the concubine. 1 Attribution
• Epithet: (LOVE)親/INTIMATE The general word for close familiarity is qīn 親 (ant. shū 疏 "have only distant relations with"), but the word often retains connotations of kinship relations.
• Epithet: (LOVE)忠/FAITHFUL Zhōng 忠 refers to a selfless effort on behalf of the person to whom one takes oneself to owe loyalty, and this person may be either a ruler or a friend. 1 Attribution
• Contrast: (LOVE)好/LIKE The general words expressing preference is ài 愛, but the notion is often hard to distinguish from a preferential desire, and for the semantically closely related hào 好 see DESIRE. 1 Attribution
• Contrast: (COPULATE)幸/COPULATE Xìng 幸 refers periphrastically and politely in historical texts to enjoying the sexual favours, typically of an emperor. See also FAVOUR 1 Attribution
• Contrast: (LOVE)恩/LOVE
• Contrast: (LOVE)寵/FAVOURITE The current general word for enjoying favourite status is xìng 幸 (ant.* qì 棄 "be rejected as favourite; rejected"); and the standard general word for showing favour to a favourite is chǒng 寵. 1 Attribution
• Contrast: (SAFEGUARD)養/REAR Yǎng 養 refers primarily to the caring for and nourishing of one's parents, children or other humans one feels caring sympathy for and is only occasionally used for non-humans, although it does apply to plants like mulberry trees that need much care. 1 Attribution
• Contrast: (SAFEGUARD)治/GOVERN The general word for governing, administering or ordering things is zhì 治, old reading chí. 1 Attribution
• Contrast: (LOVE)貴/APPRECIATE Guì 貴 is the most general word for appreciating the importance of something which is comparative in nuance. [COMPARATIVE], [GENERAL], [UNEMOTIONAL] 1 Attribution
• Contrast: (LOVE)貴/APPRECIATE Guì 貴 is the most general word for appreciating the importance of something which is comparative in nuance. [COMPARATIVE], [GENERAL], [UNEMOTIONAL] 2 Attributions
• Contrast: (LOVE)重/IMPORTANT Zhòng 重 (ant. qīng 輕"of no consequence") focusses on what carries considerable weight in a certain context. 1 Attribution
• Assoc: (LOVE)信/TRUST The current word for having faith in someone is xìn 信 (ant. yí 疑 "be suspicious of"), and this word belongs to the high discourse of politics and ethics. 2 Attributions
• Assoc: (LOVE)悅 / 說/DELIGHT The general current word referring to the purely psychological notion of a transitory or temporary feeling of pleasure or delight is yuè 悅 (ant. yùn 慍 "feel intensely dissatisfied with, feel offended by"). 1 Attribution
• Assoc: (LOVE)惠/GENEROUS Probably the most general word for generosity is huì 惠 (ant. sè 嗇 "stingy, ungenerous"), and this refers to any kind of emotional as well as material munificence by a person of superior status. 5 Attributions
• Assoc: (LOVE)寶/APPRECIATE Bǎo 寶 refers to the treasuring of something as something that one has and keeps as a treasure. [EMOTIONAL], [HIGH-DEGREE] 1 Attribution
• Assoc: (LOVE)慈/LOVE Cí 慈 (ant. rěn 忍 "callous, unfeeling") is primarily the intimate emotional concern of mothers/parents for their children, and by extension such concern of a fatherly ruler for his people. [EMOTIONAL], [PRACTICAL] 1 Attribution
• Assoc: (LOVE)親/INTIMATE The general word for close familiarity is qīn 親 (ant. shū 疏 "have only distant relations with"), but the word often retains connotations of kinship relations.
• Assoc: (LOVE)親/INTIMATE The general word for close familiarity is qīn 親 (ant. shū 疏 "have only distant relations with"), but the word often retains connotations of kinship relations.
• Synon: (LOVE)好/LOVE1 Attribution
• Synon: (LOVE)美/ADMIRE Měi 美 (ant. è 惡 "find despicable an dislikable") refers to an intense expressly subjective aesthetic or moral appreciation for something as admirable. [COVERT], [STATE], [SUBJECTIVE]
• Oppos: (LOVE)畏/RESPECT Wèi 畏 (ant. xiá 狎 "treat without the proper respect due to someone in high position, treat with improper familiarity") refers to awe-struck respect for a person in authority. 1 Attribution