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BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CHINESE LITERATURE NATIONAL CHENGCHI UNIVERSITY NO.17
Publication date： 2012-06
Special Article Traditional Chinese Epistemology: The Structural Compatibility of Mind and External World
Traditional Chinese theories of knowledge can be called structural or relational epistemologies, because the subject they refer to are relations, forming a relative fixed structure. The present article shows that in China, the structural approach to comprehension had already been elaborated in ancient times. It has been developed as an epistemological model that arises out of the compatibility between the structures of the external world and those of the human mind. Such structural compatibility has been seen as the basic precondition of human perception. The structural constitution of consciousness on the one, and of external world on the other side, has been expressed by the term li 理, which functioned as the traditional Chinese concept of structure.
When comparing different methods of viewing the moral values of Confucianism, it is disputable whether early Confucianism — Confucianism in the early and middle Warring State Period — belongs to virtue ethics or role ethics. Early Confucianism reveres the Mandate of Heaven, centers around the disposition of human beings, and emphasizes on the nobility of rulers and the objectivity and generality of human relations. Within the patriarchy, rulers and the ruled, parents and children, husbands and wives, etc. have their respective social roles, duties and position. It is difficult to believe this way of thought is accomplished only by one person when studying the development of Confucianism shown on the Guodian bamboo slips. By enunciating the state, the content, and the practice of morality, scholars in the early and middle Warring State Period complete the construction of Confucianism and explicitly position man in the world of morality.
One of Yang Xiong’s most important books is the Taixuan, which is generally thought to be related to the Book of Changes and the studies on it in the Han Dynasty, but with different evidences, scholars have various opinions on the way the two books are connected. This paper first differentiates the theories about the relationship between them and then develops a new theory based on Confucius’s interpretation of the Book of Changes. Taking reality into account, Yang Xiong approves Confucius’s focusing on renyi (仁義, benevolence and righteousness) rather than follows the common interpretations that strongly associate the Book of Changes with divination. He writes the Taixuan to resolve the contradictions between these two kinds of interpretations and integrate them into one system centering on renyi.
Zhu Xi’s studies on Chinese classic texts provide researchers with bountiful high quality commentaries and numerous documents that record his annotating process. In order to discover what Zhu concerns when he annotates Chinese classics and to utilize it to understand his most famous commentary Sishu zhangju jizhu (四書章句集注) this article studies profiles of him, quotations from him, his letters discussing studies on Chinese classics and his statements about Chinese classic commentaries. Zhu realizes that one’s morality is cultivated extensively in the process of analyzing and comprehending Chinese classics; this causes him to study the sentence structures and the word meanings of Sishu (四書) throughout his life. His Sishu zhangju jizhu is not only his reading report but an excellent guidebook that give directions to later scholars studying the words and sentences of Sishu. Zhu Xi’s studies imply an evident connection between literary cultivation the tradition of Chinese classic studies.
Changes of time wield direct impact on the content and form of literature, and the significance of literary history lies in interpreting these changes. Due to the drastic political changes during the transition of the Western and Eastern Han Dynasties, fu on journeys and expressing one’s resolve comes into being and becomes a special phenomenon in the history of Han fu. Like Liu Xin’s “Suichufu”(fu on fulfilling my original resolve), Fen Yan’s “Xianzhifu” (fu on conveying my resolve) features the structure of a travelogue and focuses on voicing his resolve. Under the influence of “Suichufu” and the prevailing trend at that time, Fen enumerates a long series of historical allusions in it. He demonstrates his personal distinctiveness by applying the same technique of combining imaginary and practical traveling experiences as in Qu Yuan’s “Li sao” (Encountering Sorrow) and “Yuanyou” (Distant Roaming). Since both the content and the form of “Xianzhifu” are crucial in the history of the fu genre, this article attempts to trace the evolution of Han fu on journeys and expressing one’s resolve using Feng Yan’s “Xianzhifu” as an example, thus exploring the development of the fu and its relationship to historical change during the Han.
With the national policy emphasizing on literary writings, the years of Qiandao and Chunxi in the Southern Song are compared by historians to the years of Yuanyou in the Northern Song Dynasty. Fu revives and flourishes during the years of Qiandao and Chunxi because it is reinstated as an item of the imperial examination. Two apparent new tendencies emerge: an emphasis on the lüfu (regulated fu) and the formation of the Qian-Chun style. The Qian-Chun style is a combination of the Ou style (Ouyang Xiu’ style) and the Su style (Su Shi’s style) in the Northern Song, and the style of the writers then, such as Chen Fu-liang and Lou Yue. Lüfu works in this period are considered the most representative of this genre in the Southern Song Dynasty. In the last period of the Southern Song, the imitation of the Qian-Chun style leads to the existence of a new type of fu criticism, which especially opposes the traditional artistic criticism and stresses on the pragmatic value of fu in the imperial examination.
This article aims to present the intertexuality of the works about the Jataka tale of Dipamkara Buddha’s prophecy. The combination of its main plot and that of the story of Asoka’s donation can be seen among sculptures and murals inGandhara, Kucha Grottoes in Central Asia, and China Yungang Grottoes. Through deconstruction and reconstruction, these stories have the same motif but different details.
In Chinese academic circles, it is generally deemed that the character in Chinese bronze inscriptions has four definitions. When used as a function word, it means wui (惟); when used as a content word, it means shun (順, to obey) or serves as a name or a posthumous name. This paper compares the meanings of and its derivative hui (惠) and draws four conclusions about them. The first is that hui ( ) can be explained as zhu (助, to assist), which is exemplified in the inscriptions of Mao Gong Ding (〈毛公鼎〉), Shi Xun Gui (〈師詢簋〉), Shi Zai Ding (〈師鼎〉), He Zun (〈 尊〉) and Yu Ding (〈禹鼎〉). The second is that both and hui (惠) can be explained as jing (敬, deference ), which is demonstrated in the inscriptions of Yun Er Ding (〈沇兒鼎〉), Wang Sun Yi Lie Ding (〈王孫遺鼎〉), Wang Zi Wu Ding (〈王子午鼎〉), Wang Sun Gao Zhong (〈王孫誥鐘〉) and Lu Bo Zhong Gui (〈彔伯 簋〉). The third is that can be pronounced as zhuan (專), meaning zhisi (職司, to manage), as in the inscriptions of Jiu Nian Wui Ding (〈九年衛鼎〉). The fourth is that can be pronounced as hui (會), meaning huiju (會聚,to assemble), as in the inscriptions of Fu Qu Zun (〈尊〉).
