英文摘要 |
This essay attempts to explore through discourse analysis the making of Hsiung Shih-li's identity as a Neo-Confucianist. Four levels of hermeneutical analysis, i.e., historical-narrative, semantic, philosophical, and existential, are taken as a methodical guide. My analysis leads to the following conclusions: (1) On the existential level, as Tu Wei-ming points out, Hsiung considered as his own ultimate concern 'the quest for true self' or 'the search for the truth in which life can abide'. (2) On the philosophical level, such existential quest resulted in a holistic, creative, and dynamic ontology of transformation. (3) On the semantic level, a chain of metonymic replacement can clearly be seen in Hsiung's usages of 'translbrmation' and 'mind-volition-consciousness', based on the various semantic contexts of the Indian and Chinese Yogacara, Madhyamika, Hua-yen, Ch'an, Taoism, Neo-Confucianism, and The Book of Changes. Like Indra's net, these multivocal meanings were woven into a seemingly consistent discourse. (4) On the historical-narrative level, Hsiung's autobiographical self-portrait in the genre of 'recorded sayings' can be regarded as the most significant element in his hermeneutics of self, as it serves as a guide in reading Hsiung's philosophy as directed toward the searching for self. In this essay, I emphasize the last two levels of analysis in order to demonstrate that there is no such thing as 'identity' per se in a Confucian philosopher and his philosophy. In the case of Hsiung Shih-li, we found that his Confucian identity is constructed through mirrors of language among which Buddhist language plays the most significant role. |