Abstract

The debate on words and meaning，i.e.，yan yi zhi bian 言意之辨，as it is called，mainly regards the problem of yan bu jin yi 言不尽意（that words cannot fully express meaning），which is one of the main issues of Weijin Xuan xue. It is firstly related with the philosophical thinking that dao道 is unspeakable in the Pre-Qin Period，at the same time is in connection with the matter of “establishing images to fully exhaust the meaning”（li xiang jin yi，立象尽意） in poetry studies. Current researches on this topic mostly take the perspective of the history of ideas. However，in this book I will try to approach this old issue from a philosophical view. Using the method of concept analysis，I will focus on the three key classics on Weijin Xuanxue，viz.，Laozi，Zhuangzi，and the Book of Changes to deal with the problems as follows：Why can’t words fully express dao？Why can’t words fully express meaning？The study will in the end lead to the analysis of the language of poetry. Therefore the methodology is a combination of tracing back to the original texts and developing new hermeneutical interpretations. To trace back is to go back to the Pre-Qin philosophies to examine the concepts of dao，wu 无（nothingness），yan言（words） and xiang 象（images） and to deal with their relations. This is an analysis of the Pre-Qin philosophers’ special way of expressing and thinking. To develop new hermeneutical interpretations is to elaborate on the non-objectified characteristic of dao through the perspective of phenomenology. In this part I will explore the distinguishing features of the language of poetry and will show the matter of fact that out of all different types of expressions，poetic language is one that is specifically close to dao.

The main ideas of my book are as follows：what yan bu jin yi reveals is yan bu jin dao（that words cannot fully exhaust dao）. The ultimate meaning is dao itself，which is unspeakable and unnamable. Lao Tzu，Zhuang Tzu and Confucius were all aware of the danger that language or naming will eventually deconstruct dao （ming shi dao fen 名使道分），thereupon they had all adopted special way of speaking. The conceptualization of dao is the process of the objectification of dao that lies on the ground of the modern epistemology of subject-object dualism. All the same，there are four characteristics in poetic language，i.e.，concreteness，spontaneity，musicality and temporality. For this reason，poetic language can deconstruct the objectified thinking under western epistemology and let dao emerge by itself. In poetry，the ten thousand things exist spontaneously by themselves and can be seen through themselves.