Time and Categorical Association: A Case Study of Zhang Heng

Through the research on ""Categorical Association"", professor Yu-Yu Cheng not only completed the background of ""Chinese Lyrical Tradition"", but also developed a new vision for Chinese literature. Based on this, we started a research on the concept of ""Time"", trying to explore the other side of the construction of knowledge and develop a more extensive and inclusive vision for Chinese literature. The main part of this research will be divided in three dimensions, including discussions on the concept of ""time"", the construction of awareness framework and a case study of Zhang Heng. We will begin with clarifying how people understand the concept of ""time"" by analyzing the word「時」, focusing on its word-formation and redefining its category. Then, we will discuss with the awareness of seasons and time-measuring apparatuses.Because our purpose is to find the thread of thought against ""Categorical Association"", we must emphasize on the time-measuring apparatuses, trying to figure out how people divide time in a year and a day. Through this, we may be able to describe how people understand the concept of ""time"" in the period of Qin and Han. Finally, we will take a case study of Zhang Heng. First, we will display how Zhang Heng''s unique aspiration and emphasize his talent for machinery. On account of these unique cerebration,Zhang Heng had shown a thread of thought different from ""Categorical Association"", and closer to science.Then,we will analyze Zhang Heng''s narrative idiosyncrasy, satire strategy, discourse structure and literary form. Consequently, we could reveal the other side of thought from ""Categorical Association"", and exhibit its influence on literature. Literature,in this case, was not a aggregate of associating things, but an object with its own independent boundary.As a result,we could reconstruct the thread of thought of the innovation in the history of Chinese literature.