Social Sciences in China Review

No.1, 2020

The Limits of Interpretation

Editor’s note: From its beginning, interpretation has been a creative process of subjective intervention. It managed to become a field of study not because of simple textual reiteration, but rather because of the huge space of meaning it opens up in the text. However, as in all fields of thought, in the absence of external rules the exercise of subjectivity will eventually cross over the boundary of public understanding and become a purely private conundrum. Without certain rules, no field of study can stand. If interpretation floats rootlessly in the stream of consciousness, hermeneutics will be untenable. In terms of theory, Heidegger once said that the problem is not to avoid the circle, but to come into it in the right way. I fear that infinite unbounded interpretation may not be the right way. China has a long interpretive tradition, seen in liujing zhu wo (the six classics footnote my thoughts) or wo zhu liujing (I footnote the six classics).” In the Chinese tradition, it is the boundaries that each defines that make the dialogue between text and interpreter a meaningful circle. Today’s Chinese scholars retain their own unique reflections and exploration of the boundaries and limits of interpretation. To conduct in-depth research on the basic theoretical issues of hermeneutics and promote the construction of a contemporary Chinese hermeneutic discourse system, Social Sciences in China Press invited well-known domestic scholars to provide in-depth discussion of “the limits of interpretation” focusing on the boundaries, limits and certainties of interpretation. We selected for publication the revised presentations of Professor Zhang Yibing from Nanjing University, Professor Chen Jiaying from Capital Normal University and Professor Sun Zhouxing from Tongji University.