Predicament Of Language And Mission Of Philosophy

Zhuangzi, as a chief representative of the Taoist scholars before the Qin Dynasty, had ever meditated on language and formed a deep and systematic ideas. However, the previous scholars didn't pay much attention to this. Even if it was discussed occasionally, the comments were various and vague. Therefore, this paper, basing itself on the fact of Zhuangzi's language ideas, regarding modern linguistics and the western philosophy of language as its theoretical reference, is to have a comparatively objective, overall , systematic and deep study on the language theory of Zhuangzi so as to excavate the original philosophy ideas which was neglected in the history dust.This paper is divided into three parts: preface, body and conclusion.In the preface, the author puts forward the reason of the topic and the visual angel of the demonstration.The body part, according to the logic sequence, is divided into five sections. The author, in this part, studies and examines Zhuangzi's philosophy of language in detail: I . Speakable and unspeakableIn this section, the author generally narrates Zhuangzi' s centralized discussion about the mutual relations of "language", "meaning" and "Tao" in "the Natural Course of Events", "Autumn Floods" and "Knowledge Travels North", and then draws a conclusion: Zhuangzi, treating language as dimension, divided the world into two parts: One was the phenomenan world which could be transmitted by ordinary language, and it was the speakable world; and another was the meta-noumenon world which couldn' t be transmitted by ordinary language, and it was the unspeakable world. Therefore the proposition that "Tao can't be spoken of" is drawn forth.H . Why to be unspeakableThis section discusses the two main reasons of "Tao can't be spoken of" which was touched upon by Zhuangzi: one is the mistake of the spoken attitude of the Ian-guage subject; and the other us the limitations of the objective language.HI ?Saying the unspeakableThis section holds that the greatest contribution of Zhuangzi's philosophy of language is not that Zhuangzi understood the actual predicament of "Tao can't be spoken of" , but that he recognized the objective fact of "Tao can't be not spoken of" , and for this diverted his attention from "what to say" to "how to say". And his method and way were to make the spoken way transfer from the "speech with thoughtful quality" ("worldly saying") to the "speech with poetic quality" ("speech up to Tao"). He, by changing the spoken way, surmounted the language predicament of "Tao can't be spoken of" so as to achieved the free language state of "language equal to Tao" , and at last accomplished his philosophy mission of "saying the unspeakable".I\ . Speech of saying the unspeakableThis section, by developing the various previous theories, makes an analysis of connotations of the three speeches and of their relations, pointing out that these three speeches forming an organic unity, are relatively independent language froms on the one hand and dependent upon each other on the other hand because they are all con-cretizations of "speech up to Tao". Zhuangzi made use of these three speeches to surpass the predicament of language from the part of language expression. Finally, the author points out that language subject must enhance self-cultivation and make himself possess the trait of "the person who embodies Tao".V . Essence of the speech of saying the unspeakableThis section firstly probes into the metaphor essence of Zhuangzi's three speeches, and then discusses the difference between Zhuangzi's metaphor and traditional metaphor. That is to say, the traditional metaphor is just a kind of writing technique, a kind of rhetorical measure, but Zhuangzi's metaphor is a kind of thinking way, a kind of being form.In conclusion, the author sums up the purport of this paper and unfolds the value of Zhuangzi's philosophy of language.