Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 10, 2023

Chinese Thought: An Empirical Model of Conceptual Language

(Abstract)

Li Wei

The first step in understanding classical Chinese thought is to understand the conceptual language by which ancient Chinese expressed their ideas. However, studies on the concepts of Chinese philosophy usually focus on such abstract terms as “Heaven” and “Dao.” This confines conceptual language to an abstract category, suggesting that abstract expressions are the only way to gain an insight into the philosophical nature of thought. In fact, ancient Chinese preferred to draw on conceptual language by describing concrete experience. As the literature shows, many empirical words describing the body, time and space, and movement go beyond their ordinary meaning, being diverted into the explanation of problems in the fields of the spirit, politics, human relations and values. Such a reasoning strategy is nengjin qupi (drawing analogies from oneself) advocated by the ancient Chinese. In essence, this involved constructing a conceptual language of that expressed ideas based on the model of given materials of experience.