《中国汉字和哲学的主体-中国哲学的经验特性（英文）》.pdf

Intercultural Communication Studies XVII: 2 2008 Jia The Body in Chinese Characters and Philosophy --The Experiential Nature of Chinese Philosophy Yuxin Jia, Harbin Institute of Technology This paper argues that the Chinese character system is a matter of conceptual metaphors and the metaphors emerge from bodily experience. The paper follows the updated cognitive approach and makes an etymological and philological study of the Chinese characters, which are the most fundamental philosophical and cultural concepts such, as the concept 象xiang, image, the concept of the Chinese self which is structurally embedded in the character, and the concept of 义yi, etc. The paper relates the characters and concepts to critical interpretation of classics of Confucius and ancient classical works. As a unique conceptual system that we use in thinking and acting, the structures and forms of the Chinese characters are an important source of evidence for what a human conceptual system is. The author claims that philosophy which endeavors to explain the world and human life is largely metaphorical and it is grounded in bodily experience. By bringing metaphorical thought into the limelight, Lakoff and Johnson (1980) show us that human conceptual system we use in thinking, experiencing, understanding, and reasoning about the world is metaphorical. The metaphorical meanings arise from conceptual metaphorical