Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.2, 2021

A Re-Discussion of Imposed Interpretation

(Abstract)

Zhang Jiang

The construction of the Chinese hermeneutics must, first of all, have new insights and progress in solving many fundamental meta-problems. Imposed interpretation, as a kind of interpretation, has been very common in the study and theoretical construction of texts in various disciplines. By adopting the method of imposed interpretation, one steals objects and employs disguised discourse; using the name of the text, one elucidates one’s own ideas, imposing these ideas on the text, and claiming that that is what the text means. Such a means of interpretation violates the rules of logic and ethics of hermeneutics, so its legitimacy should be questioned. Any interpretation has an object. The object is determined. The legitimacy of interpretation dissolves when it deviates from the determined object. In the psychological sense, there is a reason for imposed interpretation, but this does not mean that it is justifiable or insurmountable. This is just like the fact that a fallacy is unavoidable does not mean that it is justifiable or insurmountable, or that it is the truth. Interpretations with strong theoretical and logical force do not need to be imposed. Interpretation is of motivation-driven nature. The fundamental way to achieve proper and reasonable interpretation is to insist on the certainty of the object of interpretation and on the pursuit of hermeneutical wholeness, and to use rationality to effectively restrain the arbitrary outstretch of the motive of interpretation. Outside the field of literature, it is particularly important to be vigilant against imposed interpretations initiated by subjective motives. The effective way of limiting imposed interpretation is to insist on starting from the phenomenon itself, with a holistic view of and the multiple and multi-directional cycles of interpretation.