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BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CHINESE LITERATURE NATIONAL CHENGCHI UNIVERSITY NO.33
Publication date： 2020-06
Special Article Body-World Correlation and the Structure of the Chinese Script: Lessons from the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty and Husserl
In the Shuowen, one of the earliest comprehensive character dictionaries of ancient China, when discussing where the Chinese characters derive their structural components from, Xu Shen proposed the dual constitutive principle of “adopting proximally from the human body, and distally from things around.” This dual emphasis of “body” and “things around” corresponds largely to the emphasis on the “correlation” between the body or corporeality on the one hand, and lifeworld on the other, as discussed in the phenomenological tradition. In this tradition, Husserl was the one who first pronounced the importance of the body (Leib) in the constitution of meaning, but it was Merleau-Ponty who elaborated on the correlative intricacy of the human body (and its parts) with the world as perceived. Starting with a general survey of the cognitive aspects of the 540 radicals as recorded in the Shuowen, this paper shows that these radicals are indeed either body-related or world-related substantiating thus Xu Shen’s claim. With the help of body-world correlative studies, including such useful models as “body schema”, as proposed by Merleau-Monty, this paper looks into various examples of Chinese archaic script tokens to elaborate on how in the Chinese scripts the human body (and its parts) might interact in various ways with itself, with other’s bodies (and their parts) or with “things around” (whether Mother Nature/natural phenomena, living creatures, or artefacts) to produce compound characters that cover the environmental, social, ritual, technical, economic, political and even intellectual aspects of human experience. Finally, by hooking upon the notion of a “pure logic of meaning” as proposed by Husserl in the fourth section of his Logical Investigations, this paper further endeavours to sort out a list of “primitive patterns of combinations” which might help demonstrate how the Chinese script, starting from the various body/world-related radicals might evolve into the whole repertoire of Chinese characters.
The concept of “cifu hua” originated from Wang Mengou’s book— Commentaries on Traditional Literature. He coined the term to describe the phenomenon of other literary genres taking on the characteristics of the cifu genre. This phenomenon resulted from the ever-changing tastes of the general public, combined with the proliferation of the guiyou literary style. The phenomenon caused the style of writing to become elaborate and complex in general during the six dynasties. Later on, other researchers also observed the unique development of literature and literary genres during the six dynasties by analyzing literary trends including “poetry taking on the characteristics of fu” (shi de fu hua) and “convergence of poetry and fu” (shi fu heliu). In this article, the writer reexamines the “cifu hua” concept by focusing on three aspects: literary theory, Yuefu poetry, and the “fude” style. First, it discusses the psychology and meaning behind the shifting public tastes towards literature. The second aspect is about the imageries, allusions, and material used in the Yuefu poetry, which influenced the palace style (gongti) poetry in the Liang and Chen dynasties. Third, there is a category of “fude” poetry in the six dynasties, which means excerpting a line from a poem as the title of a new poem. This category of poetry carries on the poetic tradition while applying the complexity and elaborate style of fu. The three perspectives covered in this article only illustrates certain aspects of the “cifu hua” concept. However, observations made on this concept thus far have been broad yet sketchy. Through discussing the three points, this article intends to clarify “cifu hua” in a more accurate and precise manner, so as to demonstrate the significance of fu in Chinese literature. Keywords: cifu hua, shifting literary tastes, yuefu poetry, fude, palace style poetry
The two academic leaders, Zhu Xi and Zhang Shi, discussed Confucianism and appreciated each other. They resolved doubts and corrected errors together when there were discrepancies in academics in order to settle disputes and then develop the pedigree of Confucianism. In fact, Zhang’s argument inspired Zhu to clarify the differences between Cheng Yi and Cheng Hao’s opinions. However, the development of Zhu’s thoughts was considered to have resulted in the decline of the Huxiang School because people had supposed that the Daonan School was in competition with the Huxiang School. This way of thinking reveals that people only saw their differences but did not know their similarities. Moreover, some people believed that Zhang could not enhance, but only followed his teacher Zhu’s theory. This belief shows that they did not understand the context of development of philosophy of principle (lixue) fully. Zhu not only built up the system of “the mind unites human nature and feelings (xintong xingqing)” through pondering over “moderation” but also explained the relationship between “Diagram of the Supreme Polarity (Taiji tu)” and Penetrating the Classic of Changes (Tongshu). Furthermore, he studied “benevolence (ren)” and concluded that “benevolence is the principle of love and morality of mind.” This explication confirmed the significance of the Classics. All in all, the philosophy of principle was constructed base on Zhu Xi and Zhang Shi’s communication, the significance of which cannot be misrepresented by sects.
Zhao Cai, the Yijing commentator in the Yuan Dynasty, wrote the Zhouyi Chengzhu Chuanyi Zhezhong (《周易程朱傳義折衷》). Compared with Dong Zhenqing, who achieved mastery of Cheng Yi’s and Zhu Xi’s (“Cheng-Zhu”) commentaries on the Yijing through converging different styles, Zhao’s path was through converging the content. Zhao chose the version of the Yijing which followed the style of appending the original annotations to interpret the Yijing as in Yichuan’s Commentaries on the Yijing, (Yichuan Yizhuan, 程《傳》, Cheng Zhuan) as well as the extant version of Cheng Zhuan without the “Treatise on the Appended Remarks” (“Xici Zhuan,” 〈繫辭傳〉) or other annotations. Zhao not only elucidated Cheng-Zhu’s commentaries, but also valued part of Zhu Xi’s commentaries ignored by the later generations. By doing so, he was able to point out that Zhu did not object to the ways by which commentators of the Han dynasty interpreted the images in Yijing using theories such as interlocked hexagrams or najia. Zhao illustrated how Zhu obtained images for the hexagram statements (guaci, 卦辭) and the line statements (yaoci, 爻辭). He also commented on the debates around Zhu’s theory on the directionality of changing hexagrams, and proposed only one change for each instance of hexagram change. The distinctive characteristics of Zhao Cai’s interpretation included pointing out the close relationship between number and image (xiangshu, 象數) and meaning pattern (yili, 義理), and exploring the relationship between the yang nine (yang jiu, 陽 九) and meaning pattern of nurturing Yang and Suppressing Yin (fuyang yiyin, 扶陽抑陰) and Yijing’s tendency to support the Superior Man (wei junzi mou, 為君子謀). Zhao Cai affirmed Cheng-Zhu’s interpretations of the Yijing study and developed and promoted the viewpoint that number and image and meaning pattern were equally important. He made contributions not only on advancing the understanding of Cheng-Zhu’s theories on the Yijing, but also on the overall study of the Yijing. The importance of Zhao’s contributions should be properly recognized.
Li Daochun (literary name Qing’an), the famous inner alchemy master in the Yuan dynasty practiced and taught Daoist inner alchemy and thoughts of Yijing and Laozi. He also instructed his community of followers (“the Community”) on the meditation methods to investigate the gong’an of Chan Buddhism. The Recorded Sayings of Qing’an, Master of the Shining Toad (Qing’an Yingchanzi Yulu, 《清庵瑩蟾子語錄》) (the Yulu) includes Li’s speeches and dialogues with his disciples, which are also included in other works in circulation. The Yulu shows that Li’s teaching methods such as Ascending the Hall (shangtang, 上堂) to preach and the rituals and regulations of the Community followed the examples by the Chan Buddhism monastic community. Li and his disciples wrote poems about their revelation achieved through meditation and collaborative poetry, these activities were also related with gong’an of Chan Buddhism. In addition, Li’s teaching about the thought of Laozi is included in the Essentials of Dao, (Daode Xinyao, 《道德心要》) and edited to become the Returning to the origin of the Dao and Its virtue (Daode Huiyuan, 《道德會元》) The dialogues between Li Daochun and Zhao Daoke are included in “Dispelling Doubts in Mind” (“Huangzhong Jiehuo,” 〈黃中解惑〉) in the Yulu, and edited to become a part of the Collection of the center and the harmony. (Zhonghe Ji, 《中和集》) These texts illustrate the organization, oral tradition, writing and publication of texts and the main concerns of the Community. By comparing the Yulu and other texts about inner alchemy from the same era and Chan texts, this study reveals the methods by which of Li and the Community accepted and passed on teachings, as influenced by Chan Buddhism, and tries to offer an explanation to this phenomenon.
Bada Shanren (1626-1705), was a painter and calligrapher of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and also one of the “Four Great Monk Painters” of the early Qing dynasty. He was an aristocrat of royal descent from the Ming dynasty, therefore remained a staunch Ming loyalist throughout his life after the fall of Ming. The styled cursive vertical writing of his pseudonym Bada Shanren looks like the characters for laugh (笑) and cry (哭). By signing his artworks with the pseudonym, he implied his sorrowful feelings for the fate of Ming imperial power and his home. Bada Shanren’s bird-and-flower paintings often served as symbolic metaphors. One of the paintings finished in the 29th year of Emperor Kangxi was his most obscure painting, “Peacock with Bamboo Stone Painting.” Researchers have vastly different interpretations of this painting, as such, it warrants further research. This paper intends to explore the meaning intended by the metaphors as implied by the painting’s imageries in terms of cultural symbols, as well as to probe into the spatio-temporal background (people, things, time, place and objects associated to the painting). “Peacock with Bamboo Stone Painting” is usually recognized as one of Bada Shanren’s few political satire paintings with an intention to ridicule Song Luo, who fell afoul of Bada Shanren. However, relevant historical documents about the relationship between Bada Shanren and Song Luo do not provide corroborating evidence to support this theory. Also, we can peer into his state of mind and the feelings as a Ming loyalist through deconstructing the painting. By reestablishing his central ideas and intentions in the creation of “Peacock with Bamboo Stone Painting,” we can have a more in-depth understanding of Bada Shanren who lived in a unique spatio-temporal environment three hundred years ago.
This essay is based on characters with radicals of “yi” (一), “shang” (上) and “shi” (示) included in the Transcription of Ancient Chinese Words by Xu Zaiguo. It discusses in depth problems related to the transformations of fourteen characters: yi (一), yuan (元), tian (天), shang (上), di (帝), li (禮), xi (禧), lu (祿), xiang (祥), zhi (祉), fu (福), you (祐), zhi (祗) and ti (禔), which result in twenty-seven sets of transcribed ancient character forms. The transcribed ancient character forms can be difficult to understand at first glance. However, up close examination, we can find rules to interpret them. The problems are sometimes attributed to the original characters being mistaken for phonetic loan characters (tongjia zi) or synonyms by Song scholars when they compiled books of ancient characters. Sometimes they are caused by morphing, mistaking or misplacing of the characters during transcription. Identification of the causes of these problems can greatly enhance our understanding of the original forms of the transcribed ancient characters and their academic value.
The main topics of this paper revolve around the Tsinghua Bamboo Slips VI, Madam Wu-Jiang Plans for Her Son. The paper provides alternative interpretations of terms and sentences and new translations of some paragraphs. The discussions proceed in three directions: (1) interpretive reading of individual characters, for example, the character “Guei” in Slips 1 and 12 should be interpreted as “planning,” the term “Yao-Wen” in Slip 3 as “offering one’s condolence,” and textual research on “Bei-er,” “Gong” and “Zai”; (2) linguistic structure, for instance, the character “Guei” means “planning” only if it and the term right behind form a verb-object structure, and the object per se is a beneficiary, other structures such as “having able and virtuous courtiers” are also analyzed; and (3) semanteme and paragraph explanations, including Slip 5 “how can you not value these able and virtuous courtiers,” Slip 15 “how can I wait until the courtiers are incriminated and insults are inflicted on my deceased father,” and Slip 17 “how can I reluctantly try when the worries of my deceased father are not yet alleviated.”
