Metaphor in the Zhuangzi: Transforming Conceptual Metaphor Theory

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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.