A Study On Qian Zhongshu’s Linguistie Ontology

This dissertation studying Qian Zhongshu’s linguistic ontology explores the key question:what is Qian’s view on the relationship between words and its connotation in philosophy and literature?The dissertation comprises four parts:the introduction part tells the significance of the topic as well as the background knowledge and study methods. The other three parts form an internally logic body part. The second part confirms the connotation and naming function of word. Human beings are animals of language, and language is of essentially necessity in our daily lives. Words may not tell the ultimate truth of the world, however the truth will not be told at all without words. The second part draws a conclusion that words do not tell all giving that words can tell and that the debate of words and its connotation makes sense. The third part focuses on the extralocution of literary language. Since words cannot tell all, there must be something that words cannot tell. This " cannot tell" provide the existence of word’s connotation beyond.The first chapter demonstrates Qian’s view on the relationship between Tao, name and word. The key problem lies here is whether or not words can tell and name truth.At the beginning of Laotse, it says " The Tao that can be expressed in words is not the true and eternal Tao. The name that can be uttered in words is not the ture and eternal name." In this sentence, Laotse emphasizes that Tao is not to be expressed and to be named. He expresses his profound doubt toward the connotation and naming function of the words and his principal criticism toward language. There is a tradition of critique on language in both Chinese and western philosophy. However, occultism goes to the extreme. Occultism abandons language for good, as occultists believe that the wise does not speak and saints keep silence. Qian believes that the occultists goes too far, and cannot justify themselves. Misunderstanding the sentence on purpose, Qian discovers that Tao is neither speakable but make people speak more, nor namable but get a lot of names. Qian stresses the speakable and namable side of Tao.Qian believes that occultism’s idea of abandoning language originates from the view that "the supreme truth or Way transcends such dualities and obliterates all distinction". Occultism holds an opinion that where there are words there is choice and where there is choice there is difference."To differentiate or make distinctions goes against the spirit of returning to the Uncarved Block or entering into an undifferentiated state of mind, just as it is contrary to the great principle of equalizing all things." However, Laotse himself cannot avoid differentia and diction, which represents the unconquerable inner contradiction of occultism. Qian believes there are two speaking strategies of occultism:firstly, the distinction between the two is simply ignored as they are offered up in succession, eliminating the contradiction of the speakable and the unspeakable, or taking recourse to the notion of expedient means; secondly, use the rationale of "in Tao the only motion is returning", hence the negative of the negative. This are their claims of using words to do away with words, or speaking the positive meaning in opposite words, or just remaining silence to strengthen the power of words.The relationship between Tao and name could be comprehended as the relationship between the referent and the sign. The name refers to three elements:sign, its sense and its referent. Qian thinks language and words do not equal to the name. The sign and its referent are related to each other through the media---its sense. Name is required to resembles its referent. Word pursuits the object of representing its meaning. Therefore, the relations of name and its referent is not the same with the relations of word and its meanings. Qian proposes the topic that "the name given is not the constant name" from a perspective of development. He believes that the sign does not have a fixed referent since it varies with the object. And name dose not have a fixed referent as a sign varies with connotation. Name, as the objective of the referent, is very important. Naming an object is the premise of the cognition of it. An object without name can not be spoken and thought, thus exists in nowhere. An object without the referent is fictional, thus misleads people’s cognition. It is meaningless to create an non-existing object only because it already has a name. The theory of "sign and referent" is one of the fundamental method of Qian’s study. He believes that the vain of the words of poetry and prose does not mean that literature is false. Those words, though have no referents, have connotations. It is not reasonable to accuse literature for not being real. We should find out the real connotation of the signs while doing literature analysis, in case that we fall into some care-only-the-name pitfalls.The second chapter focuses on Qian’s view on the relationships of "word, image and meaning". The key questions are whether word can expresses the ultimate meaning and the difference between the images of Yi and the metaphors in Shiching.In ancient China, there are roughly four opinions of the differentiae of words and meanings:the idea of words not telling all the truth; the idea of exemplifying an image to express the meaning; the idea of obtaining the meaning regardless of the words and image; the idea of words telling all the truth.Qian believes the idea that "writing can not record a language in full and a language cannot convey man’s thought in full" is the most reasonable. The thoughts of the saints are neither within nor beyond the words. Qian’s view on the image of Yi directs from the idea of Wang Bi, which is obtaining the meaning regardless of the words and images. Through the analysis of Yan Yu’s idea:an analogy of poetry to Zen, Qian demonstrates his point of view on the differentia of words and meanings. He appreciates Yan Yu’s superior idea, which thinks spirit lies in the lines of poetry, and that the words of poetry have connotation beyond their signifiers and are as exquisite as the words of Zen. However, Qian also believes that art critics can not compare poetry with Zen. Zen despises words as words function only as ways to get Zen. Poetry, on the contrary, takes words as its fundamentality. Zen survives without words, while poetry goes nowhere without words. Zen Buddhists get epiphany through meditation rather than words. Poets, on the other hand, have to put their inspiration into words. Words are almost taboos for Zen Buddhists to get epiphany. So it is widely acknowledged that they could get the final truth forgetting the words. Poetry appreciation, however, is totally about the understanding the beauty of words. Talking about the meaning drifting away from the words themselves is somehow meaningless as you may lose all the fun it supposes to have.Qian believes metaphor is not only a figure of speech, but also a way of thinking. Literature is an art of images with metaphor being the characteristics of its language. Works of reasoning use metaphors too, because "those who would explain abstruse principles and ideas often resort to analogies based on familiar things or fictional images derived from concrete reality. These are utilized as vehicle that carry one into the realm of subtle investigations, that is, they are what Buddhists refer to as expedient means or devices." Comparing the image of Yi and the metaphor in Shiching, Qian argues that metaphors in works of literature and works of reasoning cannot be mixed up due to their different nature and function as well as their positions in contexts. The image of Yi refers the sign of designation. The relationship between the image and the meaning is comparatively arbitrary, hence replaceable. The metaphors in Shiching is the icon of meaning resemblance. The metaphor and its meaning has the same structure, hence irreplaceable. The appearance of Yi is a tool to express the arguments. The appearance and the language could be forgotten if one gets the meaning. The comparison in Shiching is the objective counterpart of feelings. The meaning originates from the appearance and goes back to the appearance.The third chapter illustrates Qian’s argument of the extralocution (meaning beyond words). The key problem is the relationship between the meanings within the words and the meaning beyond the words.Qian believes that the nature of "the writing style of Chunqiu" is to tell one story suggesting a lot of things at the same time." This writing style shares the same aesthetic effect with the "meanings beyond words" of literary works. Qian divides the extralocution into two types:connotation and replacement. Connotation refers to the meaning between the lines. Readers get the meanings not directly but in directly from the words. While replacement refers to the meanings beyond the words is not implied in the words. Writers write certain words suggesting other things. It is quite difficult for readers to understand the meaning beyond words without searching them out of the context. Qian holds a critical attitude toward "the method of explaining poetry by comparison and affective image" in Chinese traditional aesthetics. He believes that is to interpret the metaphor of poetry as the image of YI. The abandonment of the images and the words as well as the pursuit of replacement has its own demerits, which are sometimes caused critics or readers to attach their own understanding and imagination during the process of interpretation and criticism. It would be hard for readers to get the replaced meaning without the critics’ notes."The method of explaining poetry by comparison and affective image" betrays the basic principle of self-sufficiency of literary context."The method of explaining poetry by comparison and affective image" is "the hermeneutics with analogy",which refers to the obscurity and stableness. Its final destination is to deduce writers’ original intentions and the context itself. The idea that a poem may appear different things to different readers, and all of these meanings may be different from what the author thought he meant is "the hermeneutics without analogy", which has some similarities with western receptive aestheticism.Qian refers paintings to literature, proving that connotation is a universal artistic style, which enlarges the category of connotation. Both free-hand brushworks and fine brushworks may have "the meaning surpassing the image"; Both the aura and non-aura poetry contains meanings beyond words. Connotation relates not only to art work itself, but also to the receptive psychology of readers. Literary context is a structure of graphs, containing many "empty", readers fulfill these "empty" with imagination, and objectify them.Qian believes aura (the spirit and tone) is the highest state ancient of Chinese poetry. He organizes the history trends of criticism on art from the perspective of aura. XieHe was the first critic who judged paintings from the aura point of view, saying that figures in the paintings are vivid and vigorous. Situ Kong stressed that poetry should have intentions out of the taste and beauty out of rhythms, which leads the aura theory of Yan Yu. Yan Yu regards aura as the highest state of poetry, not one of the evaluation scales of poetry. Qian defines spirit, beauty and aura on the basis of the study of literary theories of our ancestors, ancient India and the west. Spirit, refers to the intuition from and above careful consideration. Beauty refers to the connotation beyond words. Aura refers to the connotation that could be expressed through vivid and intuitive appearance. Qian criticized Wang Shizhen for his misunderstanding of Yan Yu, thinking that he narrows down the connotation of aura and talking about aura without the words. It is deceptive to talk about epiphany. Qian makes his point clear that connotation should not be found beyond words through the analysis of aura.Qian’s linguistic ontology emphasizes that language is the foundation of literature and that both literature creation and analysis should be built on the basis of language. All the elements of literary language, such as phonetics, meanings, tastes, words, affections and styles are therefore quite influential to the aesthetic effect of literary works. That is the reason why Qian pays special attention to rhetoric problems in his literary study.