The Linguistic Philosophy Of Duan Yucai

Focusing on Duan Yucai's Annotation on Xu Shen's Dictionary of Chinese Etymology,this thesis studies the linguistic philosophy of Duan including his philosophical study of the basic problems of language on the one hand,and his philosophy by means of linguistic investigation on the other.Firstly,this thesis gathers relevant expositions of “etymology”,“character”,“language”,“speech” in the Annotation of Duan Yucai,as well as the direct correlations between sound and meaning,and the relationship between character form and meaning.Then the author analyzes the characteristics of “character” for Chinese thinking,and the relationship between language and the world and ideas.Moreover,Duan Yucai has promoted the understanding of the relationship between character and Dao.In addition to Dai Zhen's “leading to Dao by character”,Duan Yucai emphasizes the orientation of “the character decided by Dao ”.These two dimensions affect each other.Secondly,the Chinese character survey constitutes an important way to grasp the theory of Chinese philosophy.According to Duan,the word li has two important aspects,that is,li and human desire,and li and Dao,which developes the philosophical thinking of Dai Zhen.Thirdly,the expressions such as “read like”,“read as”,“when for”,and “must” in the Annotation reflect that Duan is to establish a scientific and objective language system and restore the Confucian original desire,the argumentation and research of the cautious and professional spirit.