An Overseas Interpretation on the Discrimination of Speech and Meaning of Chinese Poetics --A Comparison of the Views of Derrida, Taoists and Madhyamika on Language by Chinese Scholars in North America as an Example

Abstract

Philosophical research has started to mainly focus on exploring language and meaning since the linguistic turn in Western philosophy in the 20^th century. This echoes the "discrimination of speech and meaning" originating in traditional Chinese philosophy across time and space. A group of overseas Chinese scholars who are attempting to give voice to Chinese poetics have regarded this as an opportunity for dialogue between Chinese and Western theories. Xi Mi, Cai Zongqi and Ye Weilian developed comparative interpretations of the issue of “speech and meaning”. By comparing Derrida's theory of deconstruction with the Daoist and Madhyamika views of language, they pointed out the commonality of their “distrust” of language which was considered inexhaustible in terms of meaning. However, they also sorted out a variety of ways in which each theory "banishes" language and ultimately presents different results of linguistic deconstruction. As revealed by a comparison of linguistic perspectives under several theoretical frameworks, the “paradox of speech and meaning” starting from the same point of view leads to disparate conclusions. The reason for these differences lies in the diverse understandings of the ultimate metaphysical connotation that “meaning” refers to (being Tao and Sunyata). Their comparative interpretations have expanded the perspective of scholars in the mainland of China on the proposition of "the discrimination of speech and meaning" and enriched its original meaning. Besides, the traditional poetic proposition is given room for dialogue with other theories.