 The two seemingly contrastive or even conflicting semantic dimensions caught the academic interest of many sinologists and comparative philosophers. Why does qing have the seemingly contrastive or conflicting meanings? Are the two semantic dimensions incompatible with each other? What is the conceptual or philosophical foundation of qing’s polysemy? The polysemy of qing will guide us to discover the underlying conceptual foundations of emotions in early Chinese philosophy, specifically its diverse viewpoints on the affective nature of the mind.