Metaphor in the Zhuangzi: Transforming Conceptual Metaphor Theory

我的研究将展示中国古典道家哲学文本《庄子》如何为隐喻与形而上学之间的关系提供一种新的视角。我将用这一观点为概念隐喻理论提供另一种形而上学的基础。我将展示这种对CMT的解读如何帮助我们理解庄子中的身份观念和修身观念。当代学者已经使用CMT来审视中国早期哲学文本的语言背后，并找到意象概念的共同点。这些概念被认为是中西概念框架的共同基础。因此，CMT是解释文言文文本的有力工具。然而，CMT中有一种假定的形而上学需要加以解决，以免将这种形而上学普遍应用于不同个人、文化和时代的不同哲学。我将提出原创性的论点，即庄子的作者有意识地讨论隐喻及其与形而上学的关系。这种关系不同于上面讨论的关系。我认为，在《庄子》中，隐喻被视为描述现实和我们对现实的体验的最佳方式，因为隐喻的结构比字面语言更接近现实的结构。在转换本体论的背景下，隐喻被呈现为模糊了事物之间的边界，从而更紧密地反映了事物的非明显性质以及它们之间的关系。我建议将对原始文本的严密文本分析与对当代中国学术和比较哲学的反思结合起来。这将包括接触中文原文(特别是《庄子》)，并使用词源学方法研究古代汉字。我还将参与关于CMT及其对哲学解释的影响的历史和当前辩论。

My research will demonstrate how the classical Chinese Daoist philosophical text the Zhuangzi can offer a novel view of the relationship between metaphor and metaphysics. I will use this view to provide an alternative metaphysical foundation to conceptual metaphor theory (CMT). I will show how this reading of CMT can help us understand notions of identity and self-cultivation in the Zhuangzi. Contemporary scholars have used CMT to look behind the language of early Chinese philosophical texts and to find a common ground of imagistic concepts. These concepts have been argued to provide the shared foundations of Chinese and Western conceptual frameworks. Hence, CMT is a powerful tool in interpreting classical Chinese texts. However, there is an assumed metaphysics in CMT that needs to be addressed so as not to apply this metaphysics universally to the varied philosophies of different individuals, cultures and eras of time. I will make the original argument that the author of the Zhuangzi consciously discusses metaphor and its relationship to metaphysics. This relationship differs to that discussed above. I argue that within the Zhuangzi, metaphor is seen as the best way to describe reality and our experience of it, since the structure of metaphor is closer to the structure of reality than is literal language. In the context of a transformational ontology, metaphor is presented as blurring the boundaries between things and thereby more closely reflecting the non-distinct nature of things and the relationships that pertain between them. I propose to combine close textual analysis of primary texts with reflection on contemporary scholarship in Chinese and comparative philosophy. This will include engaging with original Chinese texts (particularly the Zhuangzi) and examining the ancient Chinese characters using an etymological approach. I will also engage with historical and current debate on CMT and its implications for philosophical interpretation.