A Comparative Study On Language Expressions Between Han Dynasty’s And Ancient Rome’s Ethical Cultures

During the roughly corresponding historical periods of the Han Dynasty and the Ancient Rome, I have found the corresponding four stages of development of ethical culture through research, i.e."conformity to nature","loyalty to emperor","deification of royal power" and "individual seeking of happiness". At the same time, because of the cultural development, language expression and function expanded, and it also witnessed the germination of linguistic study of Chinese words and meanings and the Latin grammar. This dissertation follows the holistic corresponding principle in making the comparative study of the language phenomena, generated from respective ethical culture of the Han Dynasty and the Ancient Rome, in the aspects of literature, philosophy, historiography and linguistic study, and applying the approach of subject construction of Althusser’s ideological theory, to the analysis of the internal mechanism of the formation of language understanding, in the different stages of ethical cultural development of the Han Dynasty and the Ancient Rome, in the hope to provide a general outline of the language expression of the ethical culture of the Han Dynasty and the Ancient Rome between the end of the third century BC to the end of the second century AD, to understand the similarities and differences of the language recognition and thinking between the east and west, and also to put forth some suggestions for the solution of problems in the contemporary cultural exchange between China and the West.The dissertation consists of five chapters.Chapter One makes a comparative study on the language phenomena of the ethical culture at conformity-to-nature stage. After studying the language expression of ethical cultural development at this stage in official philosophy, it is discovered that both Chinese and ancient Romans held one type of progressive linguistic view similar to modern linguistics, i.e. there is a conventional relationship between a word and its concept. From the similar comparative study in literature, it is discovered that the prosperity of thoughts and culture leads to more demands for better expression of language, which result in developmental tendency of language from "plainness" to "floridity". The comparative study between Er Ya and Latin, two summary linguistic books, reaches the following conclusion that the completion of the two books followed the principle of conformity to nature, and different language nature of Chinese and Latin leads to different research contents and research areas.Chapter Two makes a comparative language study at the loyalty-to-emperor stage. After studying the language expression of ethical culture at this stage in official philosophy, it is discovered that both Chinese and ancient Romans held one type of linguistic view similar to modern etymology, i.e. there is a logical relationship between a word and its concept; furthermore, language is regarded as the medium which could help man know the will of heaven, and the ontological status was recognized. From the similar comparative study on the Han Dynasty and the Ancient Rome’s literature works, it is emphasized that both written Chinese and Latin language have the function of political enlightenment, such as glossing on unpleasant or difficult situations.Chapter Three makes a comparative study on the linguistic views at the deification-of-royal-power stage. After studying the language expression of ethical culture at this stage in official philosophy, it is found that retrogression of way of logical thinking leads to the same situation in both Chinese and ancient Romans’ language cognition ability:firstly, language is regarded as the medium which could help man know the will of heaven with the proofs from theological philosophy of both the Han Dynasty and the Ancient Rome; secondly, the function of political enlightenment is further divided into two refined functions, regulation and glossing. Yang Xiong and Quintilianus reflected on the theological tendency of respective official philosophy, and put forward the similar view on spoken language, that is, spoken language could perform in the interaction better than written language. The similar comparative studies on the history works of the Han Dynasty and the Ancient Rome yielded the same conclusion, i.e. primitive thinking pattern definitely resulted in the stagnant development of language. Chapter Four is a comparative study of the linguistic views at the individual-happiness-seeking stage. The mainstream of the ethical culture digressed from the official ethical culture in the latter part of the studied period. Thus, there will be three comparative studies on language expression between the ethical culture of the Han Dynasty and the Ancient Rome in three different phases respectively. The comparative study between Xu Shen and Fronto’s linguistic research leads to a discovery that people in the Han Dynasty realized the close relationship between written language and thinking earlier than Ancient Romans. They endeavored to influence thinking by standardizing written language. The similar comparative studies in literature show that people in ancient China and Rome realized consciously the basic function of language as a means of communication and expression of thought, and tried to get away from the influence of official philosophy gradually.Chapter Five, as the summary, reviews the major points of this dissertation and makes some theoretical analysis. Firstly, a line of basic points about ethical cultural development is summarized after describing the outline of development of the Han Dynasty and Ancient Rome’s mainstream in ethical culture; secondly, a conclusion is drawn after making a theoretical analysis and generalization about intrinsic formation mechanism of linguistic views, at different stages of ethical cultural development with the application of Althusser’s subject construction theory. The similarities in the development of ethical culture and language use and understanding, between the Han Dynasty and the Ancient Rome provide us with the insight into finding solutions to the contemporary cultural communication between China and the west.