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会议论文摘要

张汉良 台湾大学,辅仁大学

Zhang, Hanliang, National Taiwan University; Fu Jen Catholic University

 

 

原文Original

先秦符号学思想初探

受到20世纪初语言学转向的影响,西方汉学家逐渐开始注意先秦典籍中的语言符号学意涵,而透过现代逻辑与符号学的观点,与古代中国展开对话。发其端者是波兰汉学家赫米耶列夫司基。此处所谓对话是一个暗喻,这个暗喻的挪用,最明显的便是诠释哲学家,如伽达默尔所谈的,传统与历史的对话。传统对我们发出声音,我们接受并解读它的讯息,同时也对传统发出疑问,希望它能提供答案。以作者研究的个案《先秦诸子的名实之辩》为例。,这里面牵涉的人物是否属于同一时代?本身便值得争议,许多人的生平终不可考。比方说,后世对公孙龙的了解,乃是归纳史书与子书所呈现的断简残篇;庄子对公孙龙的描述,实际上是十足的印象式意见,这是上古研究经常有的现象,其作为史料论断的价值相当有限。在这种情形之下,我们讨论名实之辩中的诸般课题,如白马、坚白时,恐怕很难重建一个确凿的历史对话场景。因此,我们讨论先秦逻辑与修辞的辩证关系时,关心的是如何从今天的语言学、符号学观念来探讨这些课题的现代涵义。

名实之辩是中国古代哲学史上的重要论争,相关论述不胜枚举。本人研究之最初动机,系响应符号哲学家艾柯于1983年提出之世界符号学史刍议而来;研究之目标是为中国符号思想探源。近二十年来,西方学者追溯符号学的起源时,往往关注到西方中世纪三语文学科(文法、逻辑、修辞)之间的倾轧关系。根据当代理论大师保罗德曼的说法,一旦人们察觉到语言运用上的差异和各层次之间的冲突时,泛符号概念的思辩由然而生。而哲学家达斯卡尔则指出,此种思辩往往透过言谈论战,戏剧性地展开。作者参照这个说法,考察诸子之间的论辩,发现它无异逻辑与修辞之争的中土翻版。名实之辩正是一场言谈论战,参与之诸子包括孟子、荀子、庄子、公孙龙、墨家。在这场大论辩中,虽然公孙龙的诡辩修辞广受批驳,但相当反讽的是,驳斥公孙龙的诸子(尤其是庄子)亦大量运用修辞;相形之下,除了墨子外,逻辑论证在中国则趋于沉寂。

先秦的名实之辩并非始于公孙龙,但是他的文本却可以帮助我们厘清其中牵涉到的语言议题。而庄子在名实之辩中,虽然站在反对名家的立场,批评公孙龙忽视语言的指涉功能,然而另一方面,庄子的文本却又极尽修辞之能事,大量运用重言卮言寓言,削弱了语言的指涉功能,也使得沟通变得困难重重。本文将进而从符号学的角度重读公孙龙及庄子。

公孙龙的《白马论》从定义、命题、至推论的推演是藉由对符号特性的考察。要言之,他是在论证白马在符号或符名层次的不相等。同样地,以皮尔斯的符号学观之,公孙龙的《坚白论》,系在探讨质符实物符法则符之间的关系。至于《指物论》,则描述了符号跟指涉物的关系,更探讨了指示符号的特性。公孙龙对名实关系的辩析,遭到庄子的批驳。对庄子而言,以指喻指之非指不若以非指喻指之非指也,以马喻马之非马不若以非马喻马之非马也,天地一指也,万物一马也。简言之,庄子认为语言的主要功能在于指涉外物;他标榜无言,贬抑符号的特性,因为语言符号并不能表述。然而我们发现,庄子的哲学并没有超越语言,事实上,庄子正是藉由语言的使用(例如语言纵轴的替换,甚至语言的非指涉功能)呈现他的哲学,而其言谈更是在主客问答夸饰寓言的文类中展开的。由此可知,语言跟超越语言的神秘体验在庄子文本中并不互斥,相反地,两者存在着相互依恃的关系。庄子虽然批评名家言隐于荣华,然而庄子使用的语言不也正是谬悠之说,荒唐之言,无端崖之辞吗?至于逻辑与修辞之间的倾轧关系,我们需要进一步探讨。

 

 

译文Translation

An Inquiry into Pre-Qin Semiotic Thinking

This paper explores semiotic reflections in the Pre-Qin Period. It analyses the writings of Zhuangzi, Gongsun Long and others in terms of contemporary theories of sign. The study witnesses the paradigm shift in research methods in the wake of the Linguistic Turn in the early 20th century.

Taking a cue from the late Paul de Man, the author believes that semiotic thinking in general is born when people become aware of the discrepancy and tension between different uses of language. This awareness and its expression are often enacted dramatically in the controversy of discourse. The discursive polemic in Pre-Qin China centers around the debate between logic and rhetoric, quite similar to the situation of the trivium in the medieval West.

Traditionally known as the Great Debate on Name and Substance, the controversy should be understood as a phenomenon of language pragmatics. Those who participate in the debate fail to communicate with one another because there is a discrepancy between encoding and decoding.  Their polemic helps to create a textual space that includes the ‘hidden’ agenda of semiotics.

This paper is a product of my research project on the History of Semiotics, which began in 1991 with a preliminary enquiry into the concepts of sign according to St. Augustine (354-430), Pseudo-Dionysius (fl. Ca. 500), and their Chinese counterparts. It can be regarded as a contribution to what Umberto Eco proposed in 1983 as a world history of semiotics.  To that extent, this research and writing project partakes in semioticians’ general subscription to the paradigm shift towards historiography since the mid 1970s, in response, perhaps, to the prevailing Post-structuralist crisis of the sign.