The Philosophical Argumentation by Historical Narration in Sung China: The Case of Chu Hsi
朱子思想中哲學論證與歷史敘述之關係
Journal
國立臺灣大學文史哲學報
Journal Issue
51
Pages
55-57+59
Date Issued
1999
Author(s)
Abstract
When Chinese people extrapolate some ubiquitous and ever-abiding principles, they always have narrational paradigms in mind. They are in addition incorrigibly communal, and so when they argue they think of good government. The good government is neither royal hegemony nor legal democratic control, but a benevolent rulership, by which they always mean personal ”sagely rule” with much historical nostalgia; the Chinese argument is argument by communal memory. They do yearn after principles, but the ”one principle” (li i 理一) in their mind manifests itself only pluralistically, severally, historically (fen shu 分殊), never in its naked abstraction. The principle abidingly shines through refraction of legendary sages such as Yao 堯, Shun 舜, and Yu 禹, and is reflected in past paradigmatic events that historical narratives present. This paper (A) first cites examples from the Confucian thinkers in the Sung (960-1279) times to instantiate the above characteristics of Chinese argument by historical paragon narrative, namely, it is an argument by historical narrative, by paradigmatic persons, and by collective memory. (B) Then, to conclude, this paper clarifies such distinctive characteristics by considering some spontaneous queries on them, such as the relation between principle and person, principle and events, history and value.
SDGs
Publisher
國立臺灣大學文學院
Type
journal article