「名」與「言」――中日語言哲學之演繹及啟示

Ming名 and Yan言: The Development of and Insight from Chinese and Japanese Linguistic Philosophy

日本漢學家森三樹三郎，曾經在其漢學論著《名與恥的文化》中關注中日文共用概念「名」。他在比較了中日文圍繞「名」的差異之基礎上，從倫理思想的角度對二者的差異進行分析，繼而得出了中國倫理思想是以「名」為核心價值，日本倫理思想則是以「恥」為核心價值的結論。這種以「名」為線索對中日倫理思想進行探索的方法，為研究中日文化的特質提供了一個非常新穎的角度。雖然森三樹三郎的討論始終集中在中日倫理思想的比較方面，筆者發現，「名」同時作為中日之間所擁有的一個共通的概念，在彼此的語言哲學史以及文化史上卻演繹出了全然不同的兩種形態，並直接影響到兩國對待外來文化所採取的態度。而導致「名」的演繹結果的差異，同時又與另一個共用的概念「言」有著很深的關聯。本文從語言哲學的角度，對中日文圍繞「名」與「言」的各種論述進行比較和分析，進而探索這兩個概念所演繹的不同哲學思想對各自近代化之影響。

In his work ”Na to haji no bunka: chūgokujin to nihonjin” (A Culture of Name and Honor), the Japanese scholar Mori Mikisaburo closely examines ming 名 (name), a concept shared by Chinese and Japanese. By comparing the different implications of ming in Chinese and Japanese, he further analyzes their differences from the perspective of ethical thought, drawing a conclusion that ming is the core value in Chinese ethics and chi 恥 (shame) is the core value in Japanese ethics. This approach of investigating the concept of ming in Chinese ethics has provided an innovative perspective for the study of Chinese cultural features. Inspired by Mori Mikisaburo's comparison of Chinese and Japanese ethics, I further find that ming, as a shared concept between China and Japan, has developed into two utterly different patterns in their respective linguistic philosophy and cultural history, which have exerted direct influence on their attitude towards foreign cultures. In addition, another shared concept yan 言 (word, language) is also a cause leading to the different evolution of ming in Chinese and Japanese. With a focus on linguistic philosophy, this paper compares and analyzes the divergence between ming and yan in the Chinese and Japanese languages, and further explores the influence of the different philosophical ideas developed from the two concepts on China and Japan's modernization.