The Emergence of Word-Meaning in Early China: Normative Models for Words (Suny Chinese Philosophy and Culture)

The Emergence of Word-Meaning in Early China makes an innovative contribution to studies of language by historicizing the Chinese notion that words have "meaning" (content independent of instances of use). Rather than presuming that the concept of word-meaning had always existed, Jane Geaney explains how and why it arose in China. To account for why a normative term (yi, "duty, morality, appropriateness") came to be used for "meanings" found in dictionaries, Geaney examines interrelated patterns of word usage threading through and across a wide range of genres. These patterns show that by the first millennium, as textual production exploded—and as radically different writing forms (in Buddhist sutras) were encountered—yi already functioned as an externally accessible "model" for semantic interpretation of texts and sayings. The book has far-reaching implications. Because the idea of word-meaning is fundamental to theorizing, the book illuminates not only semantic ideas and the normativity of language in Early China, but also aspects of early Chinese philosophy and intellectual history. As the internet supplants one form of media (print), thereby reducing knowledge to vast digital databases, so too, this book explains, two thousand years ago a culture that prized oral and visual balance became an "empire of the text." Contents 6 Acknowledgments 8 Introduction: General Context 10 Meaning, Sense, or Significance 10 Dictionaries, Translation, and the Idea of Linguistic Abstractions 12 Concepts of Word, Linguistic Media, and “Sociological Word” 16 “Immersed” versus “Abstract” Views of Language 18 Early Chinese Immersed Views of Language 21 Method and Interpretive Theory 24 Part One Key Metalinguistic Terms and Yi 義 as External 28 Chapter 1 The Metalinguistic Implications of Words versus Names 30 “Name” and “Word” in Modern Scholarship on Language 30 “Word” and “Name” in Early Chinese Texts 32 Early Chinese Texts and “Words” as Units 35 Conclusion 40 Chapter 2 Speech (Yan 言) from Within and Names (Ming 名) from Without 42 Trajectories of Ming 名 and Speech 42 The Physiological Trajectory of Speaking 43 Speech as an Expression of the Heartmind’s Yi 意 47 Counterargument: Ming 名 with Yi 意 48 Conclusion 55 Chapter 3 Yi 意 and the Heartmind’s Activities 56 Reaching Internal Yi 意 57 Perceptible Yi 意 60 Yi 意, Si 思, and Lü 慮 61 Yi 意 in the Absence of Knowing 65 Yi 意 with Xiang 象 69 Yi 意 versus Knowing 74 Conclusion 76 Chapter 4 The Externality of Yi 義 78 The Pervasive Externality of Yi 義 79 External Standards versus Internal Equalizing 87 Conclusion 89 Chapter 5 The Resilience of the Externality of Yi 義 92 The Externality of Yi 義 in Self-Cultivation and Politics 92 Constellations of Binaries 97 Conclusion 109 Part Two Yi 義 as Model 112 Chapter 6 Yi 義 as Model: Stable, Accessible Standards 114 A Sampling of Perplexing Uses of Yi 義 as a Way into a Solution 115 Yi 義 and Yi 儀 as Ordinary Material “Model” 119 Yi 義 as Models: Heaven-Earth and Yin-Yang in Zhouyi Commentaries 121 Yi 義 as Diagrammed in the Mawangdui Zhouyi Commentary “Mu He” 124 Yi 義 “of” and “for” People in Yi Jing Literature 126 Conclusion 128 Chapter 7 Yi 義 as Model in Diagrams, Genres, Figurative Language, and Names 130 Non-glottal Writing and Yi 義 130 The Six Writing Models (Liu Yi 六義) 133 Figurative Language 134 Binary Assessments: Same, Different, and “One” 136 The Yi 義 (Model) of Names in the Zuozhuan and the Lunheng 140 Conclusion 144 Chapter 8 A Framework Preceding the Shuowen’s Metalinguistic Choices 146 Anachronism with Yiyi 意義 146 Hidden Yi 意 150 Hidden Yi 意 in the Lunheng’s “Chaoji” Chapter 153 Accessible Yi 義 in the Lunheng 157 Buddhist Influence? 164 Yi 義 and Yi 意 in the Shuowen’s Myth about the Origin of Writing 166 Conclusion 168 Chapter 9 Yi 義 Justifying with Models 170 Yin, Yang, and Yi 義 in the Baihu tong 170 Model Sayings That Authorize 173 Justifying in the Yijing 174 Justifying in the Guliangzhuan 176 Justifying in Other Texts 180 Wuxing 五行 in the Baihu tong 185 Conclusion 189 Chapter 10 Yi 義 in the Shuowen Jiezi 190 The Location of the Yi-Function in the Shuowen Jiezi 191 Tong 同, Similarity 193 Preceded by Zhi 之 194 Yi-Function as Intentions (Yi 意) 195 Yi-Function as Models (Yi 義) 196 Deficient Yi-Function 198 Conclusion 201 Conclusion 204 Appendix A Why Translate Yi 義 as “Model”? 208 Standard Translation Equivalents for Metalinguistic Yi 義 208 Advantages of Translating Yi 義 as “Model” 211 Materiality of Yi 義 212 Dyadic Yi 義 versus Triadic Signs 213 Using Yi 義 for Illustration, Emulation, and Instruction 214 Appendix B Yi 義’s Externality in Dispute: The Mengzi and the Mo Bian 216 The Mengzi on Yi 義 as External 216 The Mo Bian on Yi 義 as External 222 Conclusion 227 Appendix C Glossary of Terms with Aural or Visual Associations 228 Bibliography 252 Index 276 "Posits the origin of a specifically Chinese concept of "word-meaning," and sheds new light on the linguistic ideas in early Chinese philosophical texts"-- Provided by publisher