Wu Genyou is the vice chairman of the Chinese Excellent Traditional Culture Research Base; the second-level professor and doctoral supervisor of the School of Philosophy of Wuhan University, the vice president of the Chinese Society for the History of Philosophy, and the president of the Hubei Provincial Society for the History of Philosophy.
Hermeneutics is an important school of modern Western philosophy, in the contemporary Chinese philosophical circles, the translation and research results of Western hermeneutic works are very rich, and its outstanding representative is of course Hong Handing's translation and research of Gadamer's series of works. There are also many people who combine hermeneutics with traditional Chinese exegesis, and then strive to develop Chinese hermeneutics, such as Zhou Guangqing, Li Qingliang and others. Specific to the study of Dai Zhen's thought, Li Kai introduced the idea of hermeneutics into the study of Dai Zhen earlier. In the book "Commentary on Dai Zhen", Li Kai conducted an in-depth and meticulous discussion and analysis of Dai Zhen's "philosophy of language interpretation", and regarded Dai Zhen's "language hermeneutics" as his "methodology for completing the whole process from language and writing to 'channel'", through which he "gradually reached insight into the human mind and finally reached the moral philosophy of new science.". And this method is "a materialist method of empathy." From the perspective of linguistics, Li Kai divided Dai Zhen's "linguistic hermeneutics" into the following five levels to analyze, namely, word meaning interpretation and philosophical interpretation, transliteration and meaning seeking by sound in language interpretation, paleophonology in language interpretation, modern phonology in language interpretation, and dialect research in language interpretation. As far as the hermeneutic method at the level of "word meaning interpretation" is concerned, Li Kai believes that Dai Zhen's hermeneutics has "the scientific spirit of verifying facts, which not only raises the empirical science of epistemology to a new level, but also puts forward empirical requirements for semantic and logical interpretation, so that the interpretation of the object takes a big step forward from the understanding of truth." Li Kai spoke highly of the value and significance of the linguistic interpretation method pioneered by Dai Zhen, believing that "the empirical spirit and inductive method in Dai Zhen's interpretation have greatly improved the scientific status of linguistics as a humanities discipline." Moreover, this hermeneutics is "much more advanced than the later Philosophy of Linguistic Analysis in the West, which demands truth only in terms of linguistic logic."
Whether Li Kai's specific evaluation of Dai Zhen's "linguistic hermeneutics" is appropriate can be further discussed, but the study of Dai Zhen's research results in examination and linguistics from the perspective of hermeneutics is a new development in Chinese philosophical research in the 1990s, which deserves a high degree of recognition. In recent years, Li Changran's book "Dai Zhen's "Original Goodness" Table Micro" has expounded Dai Zhen's philosophical hermeneutic thought in a more in-depth and meticulous way in the outer part, and he borrowed saussure's theoretical framework of distinguishing between language and speech, took a reversed perspective on the Western classical "hermeneutic cycle" theory, and made a new exposition of Dai Zhen's philosophical hermeneutic cycle. He believes that Dai Zhen's "from words to words" "should be understood as the process of induction from a larger range of texts to words and the process of deduction from words to specific texts on this basis, so that this interpretation can profoundly and accurately reveal the process of interpretation." Li Changran also noticed with a very unique vision the essence of the "soul of the hermeneutic cycle" that Dai Zhen put forward as "flooding", "discernment", "fine judgment", and "three static realms":
"Drowning Bo" is to strive to fully possess the relevant information and occupy the "part" of the "whole" related; "recognition" is to summarize the conclusion from the part to the whole; "fine review" represents the conclusion, that is, "ten points of view", which is to achieve a harmonious and unimpeded realm by repeatedly circulating the data and conclusions until the misrepresentation and assertive elements in the conclusion are completely eliminated.
Li Changran's new interpretation of Dai Zhen's "hermeneutic cycle" thought is indeed refreshing. A little uneasy is whether Saussure's framework for distinguishing between language and speech can be used to explain the relationship between words, words, and taoism in Dai Zhenjing's hermeneutics. I am still skeptical. In general, as far as the history of the development of Western hermeneutics is concerned, there is generally a development process of scriptural interpretation with the Bible as the core to modern philosophical hermeneutics, and the traditional Chinese exegesis is also generally a Kind of Chinese-style Scriptural Hermeneutics. How to develop modern classical hermeneutics from traditional Chinese scriptural hermeneutics should be a kind of philosophical creative transformation work that contemporary Chinese native Chinese philosophy is trying to try. Here, Dai Zhen's scriptural hermeneutics and its activation are discussed, that is, through the induction and study of the hermeneutic principles of Dai Zhen's scriptures, we try to transform its scriptural hermeneutics into classical hermeneutics, and then transform it into the direction of textual hermeneutics, and then combine Western philosophical hermeneutics with China's native hermeneutics ideological resources to gradually form classical hermeneutics and textual hermeneutics in modern Chinese. Unlike the research perspectives of Li Kai and Li Changran, this paper basically carries out the study of Dai Zhen's scriptural hermeneutic cycle in the sense of the classical hermeneutic cycle.
<h1 style="text-align: center;"> the cycle of hermeneutics and hermeneutics</h1>
According to Hong's research, "Hermeneutik was originally a discipline of understanding and interpretation, and its original motivation was obviously to correctly interpret the language of God in the Bible. Thus, it was primarily a theological hermeneutics in its early days, and can therefore be regarded as a "technical science of scripture", and when the technicality of this theological interpretation is applied to the interpretation of law or code, a corresponding "jurisprudential hermeneutics" is produced. It was not until the emergence of the German philosophers Schleiermacher (1768-1834) and Dilter (1833-1911) in the 19th century that the theoretical construction of hermeneutics was completed and became a "systematic theory of understanding and interpretation". However, the theory of hermeneutics at this time basically "did not go beyond the study of methodological and epistemological properties" and therefore could only belong to "classical or traditional hermeneutics". It was only in Heidegger that "understanding was grasped as the mode of existence of this being, thus transforming hermeneutics from the methodology of the spiritual sciences into a philosophy." In Heidegger's view of "existential hermeneutics", "any act of understanding is based on 'pre-understanding', and the activity of understanding is the way in which the pre-structure of this presence is planned for the future." On the basis of Heidegger, Gadamer developed hermeneutics in the ontological sense into a kind of "philosophical hermeneutics," which "is by no means a methodology, but an integral part of man's world experience." "Philosophical hermeneutics is to explore the basic conditions under which all human comprehension activities are possible, to try to find out man's world experience by studying and analyzing the basic conditions of all understanding, and to discover the fundamental relationship between man and the world in the limited historical mode of existence of mankind."
In the ideological system of philosophical hermeneutics, the "cycle of interpretation" is an important theoretical problem and the basic characteristic of the behavior of "interpretation". According to Gadamer, the hermeneutic cycle can be roughly divided into three stages of development, or three types. The first stage, and the first type, the hermeneutic cycle of hermeneutic rules that preceded Schleiermacher, means this: "The movement of understanding is often from the whole to the part, and then from the part back to the whole." Our task is to expand the unity of this understood meaning in the various concentric circles. The consistency of everything individually and as a whole is the appropriate criterion for correct understanding. Failure to achieve this consistency means a failure of understanding. ”
The second stage, and the second type of "cycle of interpretation", namely schleiermacher and the 19th-century hermeneutic understanding and stipulation of the "cycle of interpretation", distinguishes this "partial and integral hermeneutic cycle into objective and subjective aspects", and this cycle of interpretation "is subordinate to the context of the statement, the individual text is subordinate to the context of the work of its author, and the author's work is subordinate to the relevant literal class, that is, to the literary whole." But on the other hand, the same essay, as a creative expression of a certain moment, is subordinate to the whole of the inner life of its author. Understanding can be accomplished only in this objective and subjective whole. Gadamer concludes of this 19th-century hermeneutic view of the "cycle of interpretation": "The hermeneutic theory of the 19th century did speak of the circular structure of understanding, but always within the framework of a formal relationship between the part and the whole, that is, always from the subjective reflection of pre-inferring the whole and then interpreting the whole in parts. According to this theory, the circular motion of understanding always runs back and forth along the text, and when the paper is fully understood, the cycle disappears. ”
The third stage, which can also be said to be the third type of "hermeneutic cycle", is the "cycle of interpretation" as Heidegger and himself understand it. Gadamer said: "Heidegger describes the cycle in this way: the understanding of the text is always prescribed by the pre-grasping activity of the pre-understanding. In a complete understanding, the cycle of whole and part is not eliminated, but on the contrary, the most realistic realization is obtained. With regard to Heidegger's "cycle of interpretation", Gadamer further elaborated:
This cycle is not formal in nature; it is neither subjective nor objective, but describes the activity of understanding as an intrinsic interaction (Ineinanderspiel) of the movement of the circulating thing and the movement of the interpreter. The expectation of meaning that governs our understanding of a certain text is not a subjective activity, but is defined by the commonality (Gemeinsamkeit) that associates us with the circulating thing. But this commonality is grasped in our relationship with the living things, in the constant process of indoctrination. This commonality is not just a precondition that we always have, but we produce it ourselves, because we understand and participate in the process of circulation, and therefore continue to prescribe the process of circulation. Therefore, the cycle of understanding is generally not a "methodological" loop, but describes the structural elements of an ontological in understanding.
Proceeding from the concept of the "hermeneutic cycle" as an ontological structural element, Gadamer further derived a new hermeneutic conclusion, which Gadamer called "the first grasp of completeness" (Vorgriff der Vollkommenheit). This "first grasp of completeness" is also "a precondition for a form that governs all understanding." That is to say, "Only something that actually expresses a complete unity of meaning is understandable." And it is only when this "prerequisite for completeness" proves to be inadequate, "i.e., that this article is incomprehensible", that we become suspicious of the circulating object and try to discover in what way it can be remedied. The concept of the "hermeneutic cycle" used here is essentially a cycle at the level of methodology, not a "hermeneutic cycle" in the sense of an ontological element as elaborated by Heidegger and Gadamer. The reason for this is that Dai Zhen's scriptural hermeneutics did not reach the level of understanding of this kind of thought at the ideological level, and his scriptural interpretation mainly showed his uniqueness at the level of methodology, and moreover, the scriptural hermeneutics of "from the word through the word, from the word channel" and "the meaning of a word, when the Qunjing" was formed in his early stages, and the idea of "the cycle of interpretation" implied in this kind of scriptural hermeneutics was mainly based on the mind of the other (my mind) that he elaborated in the middle and late periods There is a great ideological gap between the subjective and objective correspondence of the mind of the other as the objective object of spirituality) between the "circular method of interpretation." Although dai Zhen's thought on the hermeneutics of scripture did not go deep into the pursuit of the "premise of scriptural interpretation", although he was aware of the time distance between the ancient classics and the latecomers, he was convinced that through the exploration of knowledge such as phonology, exegesis, history of science and technology, and institutional history, he could make up for the distance between the ancient classics and future generations caused by time, and then achieve an accurate understanding of the classics. Therefore, the principle of "hermeneutic cycle" manifested in Dai Zhen's scriptural hermeneutics is basically a hermeneutic cycle at the methodological level. The term "cycle of interpretation" used in this article is also basically at the methodological level, and has little to do with what Haider and Gadamer call the "cycle of interpretation". However, Dai Zhen's scriptural hermeneutics has the inherent possibility of transforming into modern classical hermeneutics and textual hermeneutics.
<h1 style="text-align: center;" > two, the three basic principles and ideal goals of Dai Zhenjing hermeneutics</h1>
The "Jing" that Dai Zhen understood was the "Thirteen Classics" accepted by the Qing people, rather than the "Five Classics" understood by the Han and Tang Dynasties, so the scriptural texts involved in his "Scriptural Hermeneutics" included the works of the Confucian sons of the pre-Qin Dynasty, the "Filial Piety Classic" compiled by the Han people, and the dictionary "Erya", a tool used as a tool for interpreting the classics, which explained the meanings of similar words. According to Dai Zhen's self-description, his scriptural explanatory activities actually began through the study of the dictionary "Commentary on The Interpretation of Characters" compiled by xu Shen of the Han Dynasty, and then slowly reached a grasp of the fundamental meaning of scripture through the exhortation of words and languages. Therefore, the formation process of Dai Zhen's hermeneutics is basically a philosophical interpretation process that follows the language exhortation to learn the interpretation of the scriptures, and then to the philosophical interpretation process of "great heart, with the body of the ancient sages and the hearts of heaven and earth". Therefore, for the modern activation of Dai Zhenjing's hermeneutics, that is, to transform it into a modern classical hermeneutics and textual hermeneutics, there is an inherent possibility.
1. The loop between the hermeneutic or linguistic method and the local-whole
The first level of Dai Zhenjing's hermeneutics is the interpretation of the language level. The interpretation at the linguistic level differs from the written precepts of traditional scriptures in that the linguistic interpretation contains a grasp of the overall spirit (i.e., the Tao) of the specific scriptural text, and the grasp of the core spirit of the entire scriptural text that exists as a scripture, rather than the dredging of specific sentences or partial meanings. Dai Zhen states the formation process of his own scriptural hermeneutics:
When the servant was young, his family was poor, he did not receive a teacher, he heard that there was Confucius among the saints, and those who set the six sutras to show him, asked for a sutra, enlightened and read it, and were dazed and unconscious. After pondering for a long time, I have calculated in my heart: the path of the person who has reached the scripture is also, so the word of the person who has become a word is also. From the word to the word, from the word to the way, there will be a gradual.
Seeking the so-called characters, examining the seal books, getting Xu's "Explanation of Words", knowing its program for three years, and gradually seeing the beginning of the production of ancient saints. He also suspected that Xu Shi had not exhausted his old teachings, and read it from a friend's fake "Commentary on the Thirteen Classics", then he knew the meaning of a word, and when he went through the Qunjing and the Six Books, and then it was fixed.
From a hermeneutic point of view, the above quotation contains two meanings, one of which is that the most central content or spirit of the Confucian text is the Tao. How can we grasp the "Word" in the text of Scripture? That requires an understanding and interpretation of the words and languages that make up the text of scripture. Second, it is not enough to grasp the profound meaning of the text of the text alone, the text of the sentence, and the interpretation of the language, but it is also necessary to penetrate the meaning of a word into the text of the group of scriptures, and then examine the original meaning of the word at the beginning of the creation of the word, and finally it is possible to correctly grasp the Tao in the text. It is this second level of meaning that constitutes the "explanatory cycle" of the language and text level at the first level in Dai Zhenjing's hermeneutics.
Therefore, the above-mentioned cycle of scriptural interpretation can contain two layers and three links of the cycle of scriptural interpretation, the first layer is the word, language to the Tao, and the cycle of understanding language and words by the Tao. Without the guidance of the Tao, the exhortation of the command, and the interpretation of language, it can only be a broken, meaningless way of interpreting scripture. On this point, Dai Zhen has clear criticisms, and even has a very inappropriate statement, holding that if the study of exegesis and examination is not intrinsically related to the goal of "seeking the Tao", it is the sedan who carries the palanquin, and only the act of seeking the Tao or the person who seeks the Tao is the person who sits on the sedan.
The second layer is the cycle between the meaning of a word and the six books of the Qunjing, the Creation of Characters, and the Use of Words. For example, he adopted this method of verbal exhortation in his refutation of Song Confucianism, and he believes that the word "reason" is rare in the scriptures. Since the word "reason" is not commonly used in the Six Classics and later biographies, records, and other works that explain the scriptures, it can be seen that the theory taught by Song Mingru should not be at the core of the Confucian classics tradition. Here, Dai Zhen's sutra thought does not yet have knowledge and concepts such as the categories of modern philosophical disciplines, and the word "reason" he talks about here is actually the concept and concept of reason. From the perspective of the strategy of argumentation, Dai Zhen's scriptural argumentation ideas have a certain degree of persuasiveness, because we must establish righteousness according to the scriptures. If we look at the creative transformation of modern philosophy or Fu Weixun's "hermeneutics of creation", this kind of scriptural argument may not be convincing.
2. The study of "number making" and the loop of part and whole
In Dai Zhen's system of hermeneutic thought, there is not only a cycle of linguistic interpretation such as the hermeneutics of ancient Chinese, but also a cycle of explanation in the sense of the integration of various specific systems, technologies, and technical knowledge in the process of scriptural interpretation, which is what Dai Zhen said: "If the sutra is difficult to understand, there are still a few things." These "several things" are the traditional learning collectively referred to as the "number making" of the study, borrowing the translation language of modern Chinese, that is, the content of eight aspects of knowledge archaeology, such as Dai Zhen said:
As far as the scriptures are difficult to understand, there are still a few things. Recite the "Yao Dian" for a few lines to "Nai Feng Xi He", do not know the seven policies of the stars so running, then the cover can not be killed. Reciting "Zhou Nan" and "Zhao Nan", from "Guan Sui" to the past, do not know the ancient sound, in vain to rhyme, then the discord is lost. Reciting the ancient "Ritual Scriptures", first "Shiguan Li", not knowing the ancient palace, clothes and other systems, they are fascinated by their direction and cannot distinguish their use. If you do not know the history of ancient and modern place names, the "Yugong" staff lost its place. If you don't know less and more extensive, then the instrument of "Examination Worker" cannot be deduced from the text. I don't know the name of the bird, beast, insect, fish, grass and tree, then the meaning of the bird, beast, insect, fish, and wood is better than the meaning of xing. And the study of characters, the old precepts, the sound and sound have not been separated from each other, and the sound and the sound are distinguished from each other... Middle-earth heavenly use sentence stocks, and now the Westerners changed their names to triangles and eight lines, and their triangles are sentence strands, and the eight lines are embellished. However, the law of the triangle is poor, and it will be used to rule with sentences, and those who know sentences will be prepared for the law, and the name will be deserved. Guan and Lü Yan five voices and twelve laws, the palace is in the middle, and the palace of the yellow bell is four inches and five minutes, which is the basis of the law. Scholars hide behind the loss of the bell law, do not trace the before the loss of the transmission, it is appropriate to say more chisels.
Where it is difficult to understand the right side of the scriptures (the original text is vertical typesetting, citation notes) officers, Confucians should not ignore it. The servant wants to investigate its origins, and for another ten years, gradually understands the scriptures, and then knows the way of the saints, such as the hanging rope tree tree, and there can be no difference.
The eight aspects of the study of "number making" mentioned by Dai Zhen mentioned above all belong to specialized studies in the ancient Chinese scriptural ideological system, and in the modern discipline system, they are respectively in the three major fields of humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. "Seven Politics of stars" and "Triangle Eight Lines" belong to the field of astronomy and mathematics in the field of natural sciences, and the specific technical restoration involved in Guan, Lü Shengzhi and "Kao Gong" belongs to the intersection of art, technology and natural science; the problem of rhyme in the Book of Poetry, the problem of the relationship between the vowel, rhyme mother and meaning of each word belongs to the field of ancient linguistics research in humanities; ancient palaces, clothes and their systems, geographical evolution, etc., are the research fields of history, geography and historical geography in humanities. It is also relevant to engineering in applied science. The specific knowledge content of these eight aspects has relative independence in the system of scripture, but in the process of interpreting the overall meaning of the scriptures, it needs to be understood coherently, and cannot be treated as an independent disciplinary knowledge alone. This is the correct attitude to be adopted by the study of scriptural hermeneutics in dealing with "certain things", which is a very different attitude from the way we use Western knowledge taxonomy today to objectively study these eight things as specific categories of knowledge. Therefore, in Dai Zhen's "scriptural hermeneutics" system of thought, there is a technique of how to deal with the hermeneutics of these specialized knowledge from the perspective of the overall loop. In other words, through the explanatory technique of the whole and the local cycle, these categories of knowledge explain serve the fundamental goal of the textual way of scripture. The first type of concrete knowledge in the "Several Things" is both partial and detailed in relation to the "Tao" in the Scriptures. However, for the accurate grasp of these local details for the fundamental goal that the interpreter pursues, the Tao, the accuracy of the local details contributes to the accurate understanding of the Tao. Conversely, because of the integrity of the goal of seeking the Tao, these details, local "certain things," can constitute a "one thing" that is meaningful to the Tao, rather than an isolated event (although this is not explicitly stated in Dai Zhen's scriptural hermeneutics). According to Wang Fuzhi's "Taoist view", that is, "the end of the instrument is inconsistency." As far as the way is done, the instrument is judged, the instrument is known, and the form can be practiced, and the virtue is flourishing."
3. The great heart and the saints are united with the hearts of heaven and earth and the whole loop of speech and thought
Dai Zhen's scriptural hermeneutics and the circular characteristics of its interpretations are manifested in their explicit expression through concise propositions of "passage by word, passage by words" and "several things" related to the accurate understanding of the way in the scriptures, and the cycle of explanation between the mind of the interpreter's subject and the "big heart" of the saints in the interpreted scriptural texts and the "big heart" of the harmony between heaven and earth in the interpreted scripture texts, in the Qianjia era, which attached importance to the humanistic empirical atmosphere, As well as the Dai Zhenjing thought system, which is good at exegesis, it has always been in a hidden position. The following passage more concentratedly and completely reflects the characteristics of the "triple cycle" in the implicit position of Dai Zhenjing's hermeneutics:
Scholars are suffering from self-defeat. Heart, all-day morality, make a hundred actions. Those who do not see the heart of heaven and earth have the heart of not having their own hearts; those who do not see the heart of saints must not have the heart of heaven and earth. Without seeking the words and deeds of the ancient sages and saints, there is no way to explore their hearts for a thousand years.
Therefore, the six books, the nine numbers, the system, and the famous things can understand the words and then meet with the heart.
The first cycle of the above quotation is that the first thing in the interpretation of the scriptures is to first gain insight into the mind of heaven and earth, and then to obtain one's true subjective spirit, the self-heart, which is the essence of the phrase "the heart that does not see the heavens and the earth, the heart that does not know oneself." Second, it is necessary to gain insight into the heart of the saints in order to grasp the heart of heaven and earth. This is the loop of the second layer. Finally, the cycle of the third level, the exploration of the hearts of saints thousands of years ago through the words and deeds of the saints. And the realistic medium of exploring the hearts of the saints thousands of years ago, that is, the materialized and objectified six books, nine numbers, institutions, and famous things, concentrated on one point is the written language that remains in the text of scripture. Judging from the scholar's goal of establishing the subjectivity of his own scriptural interpretation, to gain his own heart (to obtain the preconception of interpretation), the first thing he has to carry out in the actual process is the training of the explanatory technique of "from the six books, nine numbers, systems, and famous things, which can pass through their words" to enlighten them. Then through the acquisition and completion of this skill, however, with the heart of the saint constitutes a kind of "horizon fusion" in the understanding of scriptures, so that the first fusion of horizons further achieves insight or understanding of the "heart of heaven and earth", thus realizing the attainment of one's own mind. "From the six books, the nine numbers, the system, the famous things, through their words, and then meet with the heart" is actually a compressed version of the "triple cycle". This kind of compressed version of the expression is mainly manifested in other places as a two-layer circular relationship between the interpreter's subjective mind and the encounter of Tao and righteousness contained in the scriptures, such as in the "Spring and Autumn Investigation Sequence", Dai Zhen said: "Those who read the Spring and Autumn Period, unless their hearts are not great, they cannot see the existence of the Tao, and they cannot see the essence of the Righteousness of Chafu without their hearts. The "big heart" and "meticulousness" here are only in terms of explaining the different ways of applying the subject's spiritual aspects, "big heart" is mainly in terms of explaining the subject's ideological realm and the degree of enlightenment, and "meticulous" is mainly in terms of explaining the subject's meticulous and subtle ideological judgment and the improvement of the ability to distinguish. What is to be further elaborated next is actually to express his own proposition of scriptural hermeneutics by commending the object of the preface, Tongcheng Yeshushan, that is, to grasp the written language handed down by the saints in the scriptures, and then to understand the tao and righteousness contained in the scriptures:
Mr. Zhen Yuwen (referring to Tongcheng Yeshushan) commented on the method of reading: "Scholars are not sick in keeping old stories, and they are not able to create new ideas; they are not sick in the existence of languages that are good and different, and do not seek deeply between languages and even their subtleties." The existence of the subtlety of the husband is beyond the reach of those who invite names in strong books. In the land of daily food and drink, every move and word, good scholars have the principle of taking it for granted. If you live in your world and see what happens, then the love of the saints can be carefully encountered by me. It is not a good way for a long time, and the depth of cultivation is not easy to relate to this."
Similar statements are also expressed in the later preface to Yu Xiaoke's "Ancient Scriptures Unraveling hooks" (yi Qian Mu Kao's 47-year-old work), but the wording is slightly different, because the specific nature of the preface is different, and some additional statements are extended with the text:
Man has a moral heart, but also a small heart. Its manifestation is for the essence of the heart; its subtleity is not yet as good as the gods. The Six Sutras, the Sect of Morality and the House of the Gods. The ancient sages have been in harmony with the hearts of heaven and earth and are the moral hearts of the people, which is the Tao.
After a thousand years of life, he sought the Tao from the canonical system, and the remains were extinct, and the present and ancient were suspended. The time is gone, there is no distance away from the distance, only the teachings of the teacher are the same, and there is no difference in the translation of the words. Moreover, the primary school of the ancients died, and then there was the old training; the law of the old training died, and the flow was hollowed out. Hundreds of years have descended, saying the disadvantages of the scriptures, good chiseling empty is enough... From the written word to the language, from the language to the heart of the ancient sages, for example, the appropriate hall must follow its steps, and it must not be trampled.
Since this article is a preface to Yu Xiaoke's book "The Ancient Scriptures Are Deciphered", and to praise the contributions made by Huidong's disciple Yu Xiaoke in the ancient scriptures, the final part emphasizes the importance of the text exhortation, revealing the internal relationship between the text and the written language of the scriptures, in order to praise the significance of yu Xiaoke's hook and sinking work on the ancient scriptures. The first quotation deals with three issues: the moral heart that is implicit or explicit in everyone's heart, the Six Sutras are the suzerainty of morality, the treasury of man's gods (i.e., man's mental state of knowing and the Tao as one); and the sage mind (i.e., the Tao) in harmony with the heart of heaven and earth. Simplified expression: the human heart— the six sutras— the heart of the sages; though divided into three, they are actually one. This is the theoretical premise of Dai Zhen's philosophy. The second paragraph of literature is mainly about the difficulties of experience and time faced by the Tao, and what kind of methods can be used to better seek the Tao. The third passage of literature is mainly about the passage from words to language, and then from language to the heart of the ancient sages (that is, the way of the scriptures). The main meaning that Dai Zhen wants to express in the above three paragraphs of literature is: "from the language to the heart of the ancient sages", that is, the emphasis on exegesis and archaeology should be aimed at seeking the way of the saints in the scriptures. Because only by comprehending the heart of the ancient sages can we see the heart of heaven and earth, and only then can we "gain our own heart." The "heart of self-gain" is actually an individualized way to understand the heart of the sages, the heart of heaven and earth, and can also be said to be a vivid embodiment of universal truth and value in the individual. Therefore, the cycle of interpretation at this level is mainly manifested as the cycle of the interpreter's subject and the heart of the saint, the heart of heaven and earth, and this cycle is actually the return of the interpreter as an individual experience to the universal heart of the saint, the heart of heaven and earth, which can also be understood as a return to the Tao (or truth). Of course, if it is from the perspective of the subject of interpretation, it can also be regarded as the "learning for oneself" advocated by Confucius, and the "learning for oneself" advocated by Song Mingru, and the "arbitrary learning" pursued by Zhang Xuecheng in the later era can also be interpreted by each other. The true "self" in traditional Chinese philosophy is not separated from the Tao, but is unified with the Tao, which is not the same as the uniqueness of the "self" pursued by the modern atomistic individual and individualism. Only those who have attained enlightenment can attain the realm of "seeing the truth and seeing the uniqueness of the gods" in order to "dwell with the gods."
4. Ideal goal - "ten points of view"
Dai Zhen's scriptural hermeneutics set a very ideal goal, that is, to pursue "ten views". He was convinced that the sage 'introduction' that remained in the scriptures could be accurately grasped by the linguistic method of "passing words by word and channeling by words" that he used, as well as the coherence and comprehensive research methods of the six books, nine numbers, systems, and famous objects, and then increasing the "great heart" to meet the ancient sages and sacred hearts. The following passage reflects to a considerable extent the ideal goal that Dai Zhen pursued in the process of interpreting the scriptures:
All servants therefore seek the scriptures, fearing the prologues of the saints in the hereafter also. However, if you seek and get, you have ten views, and some have not reached ten views. The so-called ten points of view, the ancient and incoherent, in line with the tao without leaving room for discussion, meticulous study, and both the end and the end. If the husband follows the rumors to imitate his own truth, chooses the sayings of the people to judge his superiority, out of empty words to determine his arguments, and on the basis of isolated evidence to believe in his understanding; although he can know the source of the flow, he does not witness the guidance of the fountain, he can follow the roots, and he does not wear his hands on the branches and branches, and he has not reached the tenth sight. In this way, the meaning of "not knowing is not knowing" is lost, and the confusion is added in vain, so as to nourish the discernment of the knower.
The above-mentioned "ancient and incoherent" is mainly aimed at the means of studying the ancient and the famous things and systems, "conforming to the tao without leaving any room for discussion", mainly because the researcher should "enlarge his heart", be interested in hearing the Tao, and finally raise his heart or ambition to the realm of being able to understand the heart of the ancient sages, and use the "way of the saints" to reflect on whether it is appropriate to interpret the specific precepts and the system of famous things. It can be said that the examination of the appropriateness of specific explanatory techniques is based on the eternal way that the sages believe in throughout the ages, which can also be regarded as a cycle of "truth" and "method". Dai Zhen's "ten views" in his early years were mainly confined to the study of evidence, with a strong epistemological color. In his later years, he opposed reason, righteousness, and "opinion" and expressed a strong social concern - "I am afraid that those who seek reason and righteousness should take opinions as opinions, and who know that the people will suffer from their ultimate misfortunes":
The same thing about the mind is the reason, the righteousness, but it is not the same, but it is in the opinion of others, and it is irrational and unrighteous. Everyone who thinks so, the whole world knows that "it is not easy to be easy", and this is the same. Reasoning can be distinguished by seeing the mind; righteousness can be judged by seeing the heart. Each of the divisions has its own difficult rules, the name is reasonable; such as si and appropriate, the name is righteous. It is the one who is sensible, who knows his distinction; the one who is righteous, who is also wise in his judgment. Ignorance is often confused by suspicion; if it is not refined, it is often mixed with selfishness and harm. Those who seek reason and righteousness and those who are not wise enough are therefore not reasonable. He who is not a saint can rarely be hidden; there is a deep concealment, and there is a shallow concealment. Man should not be blinded by self-wisdom, let his opinions be taken into account, and cling to them as righteousness. I am afraid that those who seek righteousness will take their opinions, and I know that the people will suffer from them in the end!
The principle and righteousness of the mind "as it is" in the above text, that is, the way of the ancient sages and the "introduction" of the saints that he said in his early years. As ordinary people, everyone has something to hide, but there is a distinction between deep and shallow. Therefore, in the process of seeking the Truth and seeking reason, we must be particularly careful, and we must not regard the "opinions" that have not yet reached the tenth view as "ten views" and take them as reason. However, how can the way of the saints that remain in scripture be confirmed to be "ten views"? Who is qualified to declare it a "ten-point view"? For such a question, Dai Zhen did not seem to have time to think, let alone, as Mo Jia said, to "apply to the government" practice test, of course, it is impossible to use the social practice of modern philosophy to test the ideological consciousness of truth. Therefore, Dai Zhen hopes to seek the traditional linguistic method of determining semantics by means of exhortation and evidence, to explore the Tao or truth in the scriptures with the characteristics of overall theoretical speculation, but in fact there is a dilemma of lack of tools or skills, and in the face of the dilemma of the lack of tools and technology, Dai Zhen does not seem to have enough awareness.
<h1 style="text-align: center;">3. From scriptural interpretation to classical hermeneutics</h1>
The reason why we call Dai Zhen's hermeneutics scriptural hermeneutics is because his hermeneutic principles are summarized from the annotated and explanatory practice of scriptural works. The second part above briefly expounds Dai Zhen's principles of hermeneutics and their ideal goals. Proceeding from the ideological principle of Dai Zhenjing hermeneutics as we know it, we try to generalize this hermeneutic principle of his into the explanatory process of ancient Chinese classics, and then elevate this traditional Chinese hermeneutic thought to a universal principle. Our method is mainly manifested in the following three aspects:
First, Dai Zhen's principle of "passage by word, passage by word" is generalized to "by word through words, by word meaning". Transform the goal of the "channel" into the goal of "general meaning", and then maintain a methodological unity in the interpretation of the ancient classics, that is, from literal interpretation, to linguistic analysis, to the interpretation of the meaning of the classics. As for whether the common method can achieve a unified meaning goal and interpretation result, we do not insist too much. This is mainly to maintain the characteristics of humanistic scholarship itself, and also to keep the ancient classic texts open to future generations and the world. The unity of methods can also keep hermeneutics at the level of humanities science and avoid some low-level and unnecessary arguments. Because the relative objectivity and verifiability of linguistics, especially phonetics and grammar, have a high degree of historical objectivity, they can ensure the scientific nature of humanities research results to a certain extent. Therefore, although the expanded text basis of Dai Zhen's hermeneutics is a traditional scripture text, it can expand the text text to a classical text with a relative degree of unanimous recognition, and this linguistic interpretation approach can be shared in principle. It's just that we have to jump out of the scriptural way of thinking and transform "seeking the Tao" into "seeking righteousness." And this transformation itself can also make the openness of the ancient scripture text manifest, releasing more space for meaning.
Second, the cycle of Dai Zhen's "the meaning of one word, when running through the Qunjing" is transformed into "the meaning of one word and one sentence, and the whole of the classic text". That is, the "group classic" is replaced by "whole". The concept of "wholeness" mentioned here can be a representative chapter of the ancient classics, such as the main theme of the entire "Theory of Qiwu", or it can be the "whole" of the wholeness of Zhuangzi thought embodied in the ready-made "Zhuangzi" encyclopedia. Similar works such as the Analects, Lao Tzu, Mencius, Xunzi and other works can be regarded as a "whole". Of course, "whole" can also be the core idea of a certain school, such as the Core Idea of the Taoist School sharing the "Tao", and the grasp of the Tao constitutes the state of wisdom of "Ming" in human cognition. If we want to accurately examine the true meaning of the concept of "Ming" in Taoist thought, we should penetrate the core texts of Taoism, such as Laozi, Wenzi, Zhuangzi, and later Taoist works, such as Ge Hong's Baopuzi, and see how these works explain the concept of "Ming". Of course, the concept of "wholeness" also includes "group classics", such as the Five Classics, Seven Classics, thirteen classics, etc., but is not limited to the Confucian group classics. With the change in the scope of the research problem, the concept of "whole" can contain a large or small range, with a very large adaptability, so it is much richer than the meaning of "whole" embodied in the concept of "group classics" in Dai Zhenjing hermeneutics. The scope is also much broader and, to put it, more universal.
Third, the relatively closed horizon fusion of Dai Zhen's "Great Heart" in the "Classic Hermeneutics" in which the ancient sages and the heart of heaven and earth are aligned, is transformed into an open "horizon fusion" that includes the improvement of both the ideological realm and the cognitive level, so as to explain the classics and activate the classics. The principle of "great heart" is viewed from today's philosophical point of view, that is, the question of improving people's ideological realm and cognitive ability. This is quite different from the narrow and vague content of the concept of "great heart" in Dai Zhenjing's hermeneutics that is limited to the "heart of the saint" and the "heart of heaven and earth" embodied in the text. The expansion of people's mental capacity contains both the improvement of cognitive level and the improvement of ideological realm, and these two points are both relatively independent and complementary. The improvement of the ideological realm is mainly embodied in the qualitative leap in the level of cognition, and it is a new, truthful understanding that is synthesized into a new and truthful understanding through special experience. The "cognitive level" often has the one-sided and cumulative characteristics of Zhu Zixue's "one thing in today's grid, one thing in tomorrow's grid". The moment of "once enlightened" is often the moment when the ideological realm is elevated. In the modern philosophical vision, the "Great Heart" can be said clearly in principle, unlike the transcendental things that are manifested in Dai Zhen's "Scriptural Hermeneutics", such as the heart of a saint and the heart of heaven and earth. As far as its cognitive level is concerned, "big qi heart" is what Dai Zhen said about the knowledge problem in the hermeneutics of scripture, "if it is difficult to understand the scriptures, there are still some things", and the hermeneutic principles related to this knowledge problem, I call it the supplementary principle of classical interpretation, or it can be called the fourth principle: the expansion of knowledge vision and ideological vision.
Fourth, the expansion of knowledge vision and ideological vision. Dai Zhen mentioned in his exposition that "there are still some things" mentioned in the passage "If the sutra is difficult to understand, there are still some things" mentioned in the literature. In Dai Zhen's scriptural hermeneutics, these "several things" mainly refer to classical humanistic knowledge, including knowledge of the history of science and technology. On this basis, I call it "intellectual vision". In addition, according to the knowledge characteristics of modern philosophical disciplines, I feel that Dai Zhen's scriptural hermeneutics has not yet noticed the problem of ideological concepts and ideological systems, and I call it "ideological vision". From the perspective of modern philosophy, such as phenomenology, hermeneutics, structuralism, historical materialism, etc. is a system of thought or concept system, although it is also a broad sense of humanistic knowledge, but it is mainly a system of thought, so it is called the vision of thought. What Dai Zhen calls "big heart" and "fine heart" at most contain the contents of the two aspects of the improvement of the ideological realm and the improvement of cognitive ability. However, the statement that "if it is difficult to understand the scriptures, there are still some things" only contains the meaning of the expansion of the field of knowledge and the improvement of cognitive ability, and does not involve the expansion of the ideological horizon mentioned by the philosophical discipline today. For example, Dai Zhen's "great heart" does not include the problem of using new philosophical concepts and positions to analyze the text of the scriptures we are talking about today, let alone looking at the problems existing in the texts of the scriptures with a critical eye. In Dai Zhen's thought on the hermeneutics of scripture, his preconception is that the Tao contained in the scriptures is the absolutely correct truth. The interpreters after the scriptures mainly interpret the written language of the scriptures through the way of "great hearts", and at the same time can accurately interpret the written language of the scriptures, and then interpret the Word in the scriptures. This is the basic idea in Dai Zhen's "scriptural hermeneutics". We must activate his scriptural hermeneutic thought, transform it into "classical hermeneutics", and by improving the cognitive level and ideological realm of the explanatory subject, produce a kind of horizon fusion with the classical text, and at the same time not be limited to the meaning of the classical text, but combine the ideological principles contained in it with the problems of the era in which the interpreter is located, and regard the ideological principles embodied in the classics as an organic part of contemporary philosophical thinking, rather than as the dominant principle. This is the fundamental difference between the classical hermeneutics we advocate and Dai Zhen's scriptural interpretation. In other words, classical hermeneutics treats the classics as open texts, while Dai Zhen's scriptural hermeneutics views the textual texts as a closed system of truth. The "great heart" of the interpretive subject is only an infinite approximation to the text of scripture, and is therefore in principle a historical reductionist line of thought. The "classical hermeneutics" we advocate is to open the ancient classics to the real world, as the interpreter of the subject, the "big heart" is to open to the dual world of classics and life, and in the process of three-dimensional interaction and circulation between the classics, the world and the explanatory subject, let the classics be activated, let the world enrich, let the interpreter's own spiritual connotation enrich, and then become a subject with more spiritual thickness.
Taken together, it can constitute what I call the four principles of modern classical hermeneutics. Of course, these modern classical hermeneutic principles are based on Dai Zhen's principles of classical hermeneutics, and are not enough to encompass all the problems of classical interpretation. The hermeneutic approach of "knowing people and discussing the world", as Mencius called it, seems to be difficult to be included in Dai Zhen's principles of scriptural hermeneutics. Although the methods of allegory and tautism in Zhuangzi's "three words" method are not directly related to the methods of classical hermeneutics, Zhuangzi's use of the "three words" method as a linguistic expression of philosophy seems to be difficult to deal with in the threefold relationship between word-language and Taoism that Dai Zhen insists on solving the meaning of the word-language-Tao. Therefore, the principles of modern classical hermeneutics only proceed from The ideological tradition of Dai Zhen's scriptural hermeneutics, and it seems that they are not fully competent in the work of interpreting the classics. We can only say that Dai Zhen's scriptural hermeneutics only provides some of its own principles to modern classical hermeneutics, and if we want to develop a Chinese-style classical hermeneutics system of thought, we need to absorb the hermeneutic ideas of other traditional Chinese thinkers, and at the same time absorb the ideas of modern Western hermeneutics, especially philosophical hermeneutics. In recent years, when I have applied Dai Zhen's principles of scriptural hermeneutics to deal with the problems of "Mo Ruo Yiming", "Tianlai", and "Jiaoyan" in Zhuangzi's "Theory of Qi", and the problem of "sitting and forgetting" in "The Great Master", I have not only activated Dai Zhen's principle of "scriptural hermeneutics" and worked hard to transform it into the principle of "classical hermeneutics". At the same time, he gradually realized that his principles of scriptural hermeneutics showed certain deficiencies in the process of actual transformation.
<h1>epilogue</h1>
There is an implicit premise in Dai Zhen's "scriptural hermeneutics" that the "sutra" must contain the "Tao"—similar to the truth in modern philosophy. This self-evident premise may be seen as the "foresight" in Dai Zhenjing's interpretation. Without this foresight, would Dai Zhen's explanatory activities of scriptural hermeneutics still be valid? Or even if the activity of its interpretation can be true in itself, can the direction of its interpretation be changed? Judging from the actual situation of the anti-scriptural trend of thought since the modern New Culture Movement in China, if the scriptures are not regarded as the embodiment or reservoir of truth, at least the explanatory activities of the scriptures themselves will shift direction. In the New Culture Movement, the main documents that are conservative and hinder the progress of traditional Chinese society are not considered to contain truth at all, so to study the scriptures is to criticize and deny the scriptures. Of course, the criticism and negation of scripture in modern China has a very rough side, and it is mainly a criticism of external reasoning, so many views are untenable, so these criticisms and denials basically have no real ideological power, and therefore they do not really let the scriptures die. In the past 20 years or so, the traditional study of scriptures and scriptures has become very active, and there are many works. However, how do we use the new horizons and new methods of modern philosophical hermeneutics to study the results of scripture and traditional scriptural research, reveal the theoretical characteristics of traditional classical hermeneutics, and make them rise to the level of classical hermeneutics, and then rise to the height of philosophical hermeneutics, in the perspective of Chinese and Western comparison, reveal the differences and similarities between Classical Chinese Hermeneutics and Western Classical Hermeneutics and Modern Hermeneutics, and then provide Chinese native ideological elements for the development of Chinese philosophical hermeneutics? It is an important historical task in the study of contemporary ancient Chinese philosophy. This paper only takes Dai Zhen as a case study and attempts to promote and transform Dai Zhen's scriptural hermeneutics into the direction of classical hermeneutics.
This article was originally published in Social Science Front, No. 6, 2019
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