西学相遇中的章太炎“引申”概念新解: 与其文论、语言思想的关联

Zhang Taiyan (Zhang Binglin, 1868-1936) was one of the most accomplished Chinese philologists, linguists, philosophers, and revolutionaries alive at the turn of the twentieth-century. This paper deals with Zhang’s reinterpretation of yinshen 引申, a traditional linguistic concept that denotes the figurative extension in meaning in Chinese characters. This paper positions his reinterpretation within the history of traditional Chinese linguistics and philology. In particular, this paper throws light on European scholar Max Müller’s influence upon Zhang’s understanding of yinshen via Anezaki Masaharu's (姉崎正治 1873-1949) concept of “representation” (hyōshō 表象) in Meiji Japan. This is therefore the first attempt of study of the direct influence of Max Müller’s linguistic philosophy on Zhang. For Zhang, the overextension of linguistic metaphoricity in Chinese characters is a kind of linguistic aestheticism that is central to the literary aestheticism present in Chinese literature. Zhang’s concern with linguistic and literary aestheticism ultimately stems from his view that aestheticism threatens ethics and politics. His linguistic and literary thoughts also should be understood within the context of the revolutionary late Qing period.