Table Of ContentTHE EMERGENCE OF
WORD-MEANING
IN
EARLY CHINA
SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture
—————
Roger T. Ames, editor
THE EMERGENCE
OF
WORD-MEANING
IN
EARLY CHINA
NORMATIVE MODELS FOR WORDS
JANE GEANEY
Credit: Qiu Ying 仇英 (Chinese, 1494–1552), Zhao Mengfu Writing the Heart (Hridaya)
Sutra in Exchange for Tea (1542–43). Detail. Handscroll, ink and light color on paper.
Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1963.102.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Geaney, Jane, author.
Title: The emergence of word-meaning in early China : normative models for words /
Jane Geaney.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2022] | Series: SUNY series in
Chinese philosophy and culture | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022003485 (print) | LCCN 2022003486 (ebook) | ISBN
9781438488936 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438488950 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Chinese language—Semantics, Historical.
Classification: LCC PL1291 .G43 2022 (print) | LCC PL1291 (ebook) | DDC
495.12—dc23/eng/20220202
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022003485
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022003486
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: General Context 1
Part One
Key Metalinguistic Terms and Yi 義 as External
Chapter 1 The Metalinguistic Implications of Words versus Names 21
Chapter 2 Speech (Yan 言) from Within and Names (Ming 名)
from Without 33
Chapter 3 Yi 意 and the Heartmind’s Activities 47
Chapter 4 The Externality of Yi 義 69
Chapter 5 The Resilience of the Externality of Yi 義 83
Part Two
Yi 義 as Model
Chapter 6 Yi 義 as Model: Stable, Accessible Standards 105
Chapter 7 Yi 義 as Model in Diagrams, Genres, Figurative Language,
and Names 121
Chapter 8 A Framework Preceding the Shuowen’s Metalinguistic
Choices 137
Chapter 9 Yi 義 Justifying with Models 161
Chapter 10 Yi 義 in the Shuowen Jiezi 181
vi / Contents
Conclusion 195
Appendix A Why Translate Yi 義 as “Model”? 199
Appendix B Yi 義’s Externality in Dispute: The Mengzi and the Mo Bian 207
Appendix C Glossary of Terms with Aural or Visual Associations 219
Bibliography 243
Index 267
Acknowledgments
Iw ish to express my gratitude to the staff at SUNY Press, who guided me through
many years and stages in completing this companion volume to Language as
Bodily Practice: A Chinese Grammatology (SUNY 2018): the late Nancy Ellegate,
Christopher Ahn, Chelsea Miller, Andrew Kenyon, James Peltz, Ryan Morris, Eileen
Nizer, Brian Kuhl, and Michael Campochiaro.
A National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Fellowship in 2012
helped me begin the project. The University of Richmond consistently provided
summer research support, and in 2019, Patrice Rankine, Dean of the School of
Arts & Sciences at the University of Richmond, granted funding for preparation
of the manuscript for publication.
I am deeply thankful to Lynn Rhoads for providing insightful commentary
along with her excellent editing style. Her observations frequently prompted me to
rethink and improve my ideas. I am delighted that Pierke Bosschieter has agreed
to undertake the task of indexing the book.
Many friends and colleagues offered critical comments and useful suggestions
that inspired me. Special thanks go to Alan Chan, who most graciously shared his
expertise by contributing to the quality of my translations. I am indebted to Dan
Robins and Jessica Chan for supplying crucial early reactions.
I am grateful for conversations with colleagues at several academic confer-
ences. I benefitted from feedback at a graduate workshop organized by Martin Kern,
Mercedes Valmisa, and Sara Vantournhout at Princeton University in 2014. At
the invitation of Wolfgang Behr, Polina Lukicheva, and Rafael Suter, I was able to
hone my arguments at the University of Zurich in 2016. I am thankful for reactions
from colleagues at a conference organized by Shengqing Wu and Huang Xuelei at
the University of Edinburg in 2018. I especially appreciate the generous comments
from Wolfgang Berh and support from Carine Defoort. Early in the writing process,
suggestions from Michael Nylan helped set me on the right track. At a workshop
in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Richmond, I received
valuable responses from my colleagues: Stephanie Cobb, Scott Davis, Frank Eakin,
Mimi Hanaoka, Miranda Shaw, and Doug Winiarski.
I dedicate this book to my mother, Julia S. Geaney.
vii
Introduction
General Context
As presently used in Modern Standard Chinese, the key normative term, yi 義,
can be translated as “word-meaning.” Yi 義 is not, however, employed to signify
“word-meaning” in the wide range of texts from Early China that form the sources
for this book, even in the first-century Shuowen Jiezi, arguably the first “dictionary”
to appear in China. My task in The Emergence of Word-Meaning in Early China is
not to posit a date when yi 義 crossed some imaginary line—when it “emerged,” if
you will—to assume the particular remit of lexical meaning but, rather, to ascertain
what groundwork was laid and what conditions were met that allowed yi 義, at
some unspecified time after the first century ce, to accrete that particular usage.1
What was it about yi 義 that, in retrospect, we can identify as predisposing it to be
a likely, or perhaps even the apparent, candidate to function as a word’s “meaning”?
Meaning, Sense, or Significance
It is easy to be misled by vocabulary related to meaning. In common English-lan-
guage parlance, “mean” implies a muddle of different ideas, including: to indicate,
inform, suggest, refer, show, reveal, warn, entail, require, prove, imply, be sincere,
etc. Hence, as Jeffrey Stout notes, discussions of meaning are confused and con-
fusing.2 Meanings are things that float in a linguistic orbit, and it is a matter of
1. Exact dates are not available, but yi 義 was being used for lexical meaning as early as the
third century. According to Hsu Wen, “The first systematic use of fanqie to notate the sounds
is generally attributed to the book Erya Yinyi 爾雅音義 [Pronunciation and Meaning in the Erya].
This commentary on Erya, a thesaurus compiled before 100 B.C., was written by Sun Yan 孫炎
who lived around A.D. 220, near the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.” Hsu, “First Step toward
Phonological Analysis,” 142.
2. Stout, “What Is the Meaning of a Text?” 1–12. For the rise and fall of the heyday of mean-
ings, see Hacking, Why Does Language Matter to Philosophy?
1
