Ideography and Chinese Language Theory
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Timothy Michael O’Neill
About this book
This book is a much-needed scholarly intervention and postcolonial corrective that examines why and when and how misunderstandings of Chinese writing came about and showcases the long history of Chinese theories of language. 'Ideography' as such assumes extra-linguistic, trans-historical, universal 'ideas' which are an outgrowth of Platonism and thus unique to European history. Classical Chinese discourse assumes that language (and writing) is an arbitrary artifact invented by sages for specific reasons at specific times in history. Language by this definition is an ever-changing technology amenable to historical manipulation; language is not the House of Being, but rather a historically embedded social construct that encodes quotidian human intentions and nothing more. These are incommensurate epistemes, each with its own cultural milieu and historical context. By comparing these two traditions, this study historicizes and decolonializes popular notions about Chinese characters, exposing the Eurocentrism inherent in all theories of ideography. Ideography and Chinese Language Theory will be of significant interest to historians, sinologists, theorists, and scholars in other branches of the humanities.
Author / Editor information
Timothy Michael O'Neill, Drake University, Des Moines, U.S.A.
Topics
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Frontmatter
i -
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Table of Contents
v -
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Acknowledgements
vii -
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Introduction: Egyptian Hieroglyphic and Chinese Characters
1 -
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Chapter One: Platonism and the Strong Theory
18 -
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Chapter Two: Aristotelianism and Soft Theory
32 -
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Chapter Three: Hellenized Egypt, Pythagoreanism, and the Primitivist Theory
42 -
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Chapter Four: Patristic Apologetics and the Scriptural Theory
59 -
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Chapter Five: Neoplatonism and the Hermetic Theory
85 -
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Chapter Six: Universals and the Scholastic Theory
108 -
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Chapter Seven: Renaissance Neoplatonism and the Emblematic Theory
135 -
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Chapter Eight: Athanasius Kircher on Egyptian and Chinese Ideography
144 -
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Chapter Nine: The Great Chinese Encyclopedia
156 -
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Chapter Ten: Zhengming 正名“Making Words Correct” and Chinese Language Theory
177 -
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Chapter Eleven: Chinese Language Theory and the Interpretation of the Classics
189 -
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Chapter Twelve: The Erya and Lexicographic Classification
202 -
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Chapter Thirteen: The Erya and Chinese Language Theory
214 -
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Chapter Fourteen: The Shuowen jiezi and Chinese Language Theory
236 -
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Chapter Fifteen: The “Shuowen Postface” (Annotated Translation)
258 -
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Conclusion: Ideography and Chinese Language Theory
274 -
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Appendix: The Metalinguistic Terms Ming 名,Yi 義,Yi 意, and Zhi 志
285 -
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Bibliography
306
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