Document Type
Journal article
Source Publication
Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture
Publication Date
11-2014
Volume
1
Issue
1
First Page
262
Last Page
288
Publisher
Duke University Press
Keywords
Chinese interpretive theory, Mencius on interpretation, “The Mao Prefaces, ” Zhu Xi on interpretation, the interpretive approaches to the Shijing (Book of Poetry)
Abstract
The four-character statement “Yi yi ni zhi” 以意逆志 by Mencius on how to interpret the Book of Poetry has won praise from critics of all persuasions for nearly a millennium. How could this Mencian statement become a credo for so many different and often mutually opposed interpretive traditions? The extraordinary “versatility” of the Mencian statement, this article suggests, has much to do with the rich inherent ambiguity of uninflected classical Chinese.By adroitly exploiting the ambiguities of the words yi 意, ni 逆, and zhi 志 as well as its syntax,traditional Chinese critics continually reinterpreted the Mencian statement in a way that justified their novel interpretive approaches. So, by investigating the continual reinterpretation of the Mencian statement, this article maps out the rise of diverse interpretive approaches from pre-Han times through the Qing. It also discovers two distinctive thrusts of these approaches and sheds light on the underlying dynamic unity of the Chinese interpretive tradition.
DOI
10.1215/23290048-2749443
Print ISSN
23290048
E-ISSN
23290056
Publisher Statement
© 2014 by Duke University Press
Full-text Version
Publisher’s Version
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Cai, Z.-Q. (2014). The richness of ambiguity: A Mencian statement and interpretive theory and practice in premodern China. Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture, 1(1), 262-288. doi: 10.1215/23290048-2749443