The Significance of Embodiment Philosophy and Cognitive Linguistics in Li Zehou’s Study of the Laozi

AbstractEmbodiment philosophy and cognitive linguistics are important cross-disciplinary methods used in Laozi studies. Li Zehou’s study of the Laozi touches on questions from embodiment philosophy and cognitive linguistics such as cognitive embodiment, unconscious thought, and metaphor, which helps in recognizing the cognitive process and many cognitive principles in the Laozi in going from “embodiment of reality” to “metaphorical thought” and again to “metaphorical language expression, which is the origin of the study of embodiment philosophy and cognitive linguistics in the Laozi. Notes1 For an account of the results of former research on the Laozi, see Liu Zhanxiang, “Laozi” yu Zhongtuo shixue huayu (“Laozi” and Chinese Poetic Discourse) (Chengdu: Bashu shushe, 2009), 11–19.2 Examples include Mei Deming and Gao Wencheng, “Yi ‘laozi’ wei yuliao de gainian yinyu yanjiu” (“A Study of Conceptual Metaphors in the Laozi Corpus”), Waiyu xuekan (Foreign Language Research), no. 3 (2006): 42–46; Zhu Wenbo, “Renzhi yuyanxue shijiao xia ‘daodejing’ hexin gainian ‘dao’ zai deyiben zhong de yiyi goujian moshi chutan” (“An Initial Exploration of the Mode of Meaning Construction of the Core Concept of the ‘Way’ in German Translations of the ‘Classic of the Way and Virtue’ from a Cognitive Linguistics Perspective”), Jiefangjun waiguoyu xueyuan xuebao (Journal of PLA University of Foreign Languages), no. 4 (2017): 124–31.3 Li Zehou’s research on the Laozi can mainly be seen in his paper “Sun, Lao, Han heshuo” found in Zhexue yanjiu (Philosophical Research), no. 4 (1984): 41–52, 31.4 George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought (New York: Basic Books, 1999), 14–17.5 Lakoff and Johnson mention in the introduction to Metaphors We Live By: “We found that we shared, also, a sense that the dominant views on meaning in Western philosophy and linguistics are inadequate—that ‘meaning’ in these traditions has very little to do with what people find meaningful in their lives… . It also meant supplying an alternative account in which human experience and understanding, rather than objective truth, played the central role.” George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), ix–x.6 Wang Yin, Tiren yuyanxue (Embodied Cognitive Linguistics) (Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan, 2020), 6.7 Qian Guanlian, preface to Yin, Tiren yuyanxue, 3.8 Li Zehou, Sun, Lao, Han heshuo, 41.9 Ibid., 41–43.10 The experience Li Zehou speaks of here mainly originates in experience of war and not experience of everyday life. However, considering the historical background of the time and the “long-term nature” and “repeated nature” of war, wartime life seems to have become a kind of “everyday life” at the time.11 Li Zehou, Sun, Lao, Han heshuo, 42.12 Ibid., 43.13 Ibid.14 The “unconscious nature of thought” refers to: “as an operation of a complex cranial nerve cognition system, the process of human cognition is not a controllable, conscious thought process, and instead is an unconscious thought process that cannot be controlled or perceived by humans”; see Xing Wen, “Renzhi minzu yuyanxue yu Zhongguo shougao wenhua” (“Cognitive Ethnolinguistics and Chinese Manuscript Culture”), Guangxi minzu daxue xuebao (Journal of Guangxi University for Nationalities), no. 5 (2021), 57.15 Lakoff and Johnson, Philosophy in the Flesh, 23.16 Li Zehou, Sun, Lao, Han heshuo, 43.17 Ronald Langacker, Cognitive Grammar: A Basic Introduction (Stanford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 55.18 Li Zehou, Sun, Lao, Han heshuo, 43.19 Lakoff and Johnson, Philosophy in the Flesh, 24.20 Li Zehou, Sun, Lao, Han heshuo, 48.21 Ibid., 45.22 Ibid., 46.23 Ibid., 48.24 Hunan Provincial Museum and Fudan University Center for Research on Chinese Excavated Classics and Paleography, Qiu Xigui ed., Changsha Mawangdui hanmu jianbo jicheng (si) (Collection of Silk Manuscripts from the Changsha Mawangdui Han Tomb (Four)) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2014), 41.25 On the statistics and a discussion of “body” in the silk manuscripts, see Yang Yuting, “‘Laozi’ bijiao goushi renzhi yanjiu” (“A Study of Comparative Construction Cognition in the Laozi”) (PhD diss., awaiting defense, Xinan jiaotong daxue, n.d.).26 Liu Xiaogan believed that the “body” in Laozi was “mostly physical life along with social existence”; see Liu Xiaogan, Laozi gujin: wuzhong duikan yu xiping yinlun (Laozi in Ancient Times and Today: Five Contrasts and a Critical Introduction) (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 2019), 456.27 Xiaogan believed that the “body of the great calamity” in Laozi was the “body of interests”; Ibid., 457.28 Tang Shaolian, “Daojia shenti zhexue jiqi zhengzhi yinyu” (“Daoist Body Philosophy and its Political Metaphor”), Guangdong shiyou huagong xueyuan xuebao (Journal of Guangdong University of Petrochemical Technology), no. 5 (2018), 2.29 Gao Ming discusses “‘cherishing one’s own person as much as anything under heaven’ as valuing oneself more than valuing all under heaven”; see Gao Ming, Boshu Laozi jiaozhu (Annotated Silk Manuscript Laozi) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1996), 281.30 Chen Guying believes: “Laozi never thought to undervalue the body, abandon the body, or disregard the body. On the contrary, he wanted people to cherish their body.” Chen Guying, “Laozi” zhuyi ji pingjia (“Laozi” Annotated, Translated, and Evaluated) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2016), 122.31 Gao Heng, “Laozi” zhuyi (“Laozi” Annotated and Translated) (Zhengzhou: Henan renmin chubanshe, 1980), 41–42.32 Liu Xiaogan believes that Laozi actually advocated “using ‘bodilessness’ and ‘disregarding the body’ to ‘cherish the body’ and ‘love the body’ and abandoning the body entangled in personal interests to complete the true body of life.” Liu Xiaogan, “Laozi” gujin, 181. Also see Wang Shaojun, “Wushen ji guishen yu wushen yiwei tianxia” (“Bodilessness Is Cherishing the Body and Bodilessness Is for All under Heaven”), Xinan daxue xuebao (Journal of Southwest University), no. 5 (2019): 34–41.33 See Zhang Zailin, Zuowei shenti zhexue de Zhongguo gudai zhexue (Ancient Chinese Philosophy as Body Philosophy) (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 2008), 4.34 Lakoff and Johnson, Philosophy in the Flesh, 16.35 Li Zehou, Sun, Lao, Han heshuo, 48.36 Ibid.37 Liu Zhanxiang, “Laozi” yu Zhongguo shixue huayu, 194.38 Hunan Provincial Museum, Changsha Mawangdui hanmu jianbo jicheng (si), 41.39 The comparative construction cognitive linguistic studies of Laozi we have seen are constructed on the basis of comparing and contrasting the true and false; see Yang Yuting, “‘Laozi’ bijiao goushi renzhi yanjiu.”40 Note 40 not cited in text: Li Zehou, Sun, Lao, Han heshuo, 43. Li Zehou added emphasis marks under “concrete application” and “calm reason.”Additional informationNotes on contributorsZhanxiang LiuZhanxiang Liu is a professor and doctoral supervisor at Southwest Jiaotong University (SWJTU), Chengdu, China. Currently, he is Executive Dean of School of Humanities at SWJTU and Director of the Sichuan Provincial Association for Literary and Art Theories. Author of The “Laozi” and Chinese Poetic Discourse (Chengdu, 2010), he focuses on comparative poetics, Chinese excellent traditional culture, and philosophical ethics in his research and published widely in China’s core academic journals. He also led and participated in four national projects funded by The National Social Science Fund of China.Yuting YangYuting Yang is a PhD candidate in the School of Humanities at SWJTU and a lecturer in the School of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Chengdu University. Her research interest is cognitive linguistics, in particular, grammatical structures in Chinese philosophic classics. Her PhD dissertation examines the classification, syntactic and semantic features of comparative constructions in the excavated and transmitted versions of the Laozi. She has led and participated in two provincial projects and published on cognitive ethnolinguistics in a leading core journal in the field in China.