The Meaning of “Meaning” An Review of The Mutual Cultivation of Self and Things〔*〕

Yang Yong

(School of Foreign Languages Fuyang Normal University,Fuyang Anhui 236041)



The Meaning of “Meaning” An Review of The Mutual Cultivation of Self and Things〔*〕

Yang Yong

(School of Foreign Languages Fuyang Normal University,Fuyang Anhui 236041)

The current research introduced Yang Guorong’s The Mutual Cultivation of Self and Things from three perspectives:accomplishing things,accomplishing self and the genesis of meaning.In the concrete historical process of accomplishing things and accomplishing oneself,the meaning comes into being and presents the being of human and the being of world in a multi-faceted way.The paper also analyzed and appreciated his specific metaphysics,which features in a rich ontological,axiological and epistemological implication.

The Mutual Cultivation of Self and Things;accomplishing things;accomplishing self;meaning;specific metaphysics

The Mutual Cultivation of Self and Things:A Contemporary Chinese Philosophy of the Meaning of Being (hereinafter referred to as The Mutual Cultivation of Self and Things) written by YANG Guorong was published in Indiana University Press in April,2016,which marked the substantial international presentation of the contemporary Chinese philosophical theory.A brief introduction to this book is made through three perspectives:accomplishing things,accomplishing self and the genesis of meaning.

Ⅰ.Accomplishing things

Maybe “things” is the most general term but is hard to define.When refering to “all that there is,all beings”,things can be divided into two aspects:one is the thing that is in the sphere of human beings’ cognition and practice,while the other is the thing that is outside of this sphere.The former is humanized and it can be called Nature for-Humans,while the latter is primordial and can be called Nature in-Itself.The distinction between things and affairs should not be ignored here.Affairs are an old concept in Chinese traditional philosophy,which refers to the things entering the sphere of the human cognition and practice or the activities of the human cognition and practice.For example,Han Fei,an ancient Chinese philosopher,believed that affairs mean doing something.Wang Fuzhi,another ancient Chinese philosopher,even holds the opinion that “things are called affairs,because it is said that there is nothing if affairs end up unaccomplishedly.” Whereas,things possess a rich ontological,axiological and epistemological meaning.

Accomplishing things is knowing and transforming the world,changing the Nature in-Itself into Nature for-Humans.The transforming or changing can only be realized through human being’s cognitive and practical activities.It is required to sublate the primordial state of the things,transforming the Nature in-Itself into Nature for-Humans in the process of accomplishing things,which makes the things enter into the sphere of human being’s cognition and practice,meeting the demands and needs of human beings.

There is a distinction between the individual domain and the public sphere and the two domains are the realities and the specific background for the historical process of accomplishing self and accomplishing things.Resource is natural,and it is one of the social preconditions of reforming the world,while how to acquire,possess,and distribute resources should take the issue of social justice into consideration.Realizing social justice in practice has the meaning of accomplishing things.The core of the social justice at the substantial level lies in the reasonable occupation and fair distribution of social resources for individual development.An affirmation of,respect for,and actualization of individual equal rights has been regarded as the embodiment of the social justice,which is called the principle of equality of human nature (the equality of human beings in terms of value).Besides,the establishment of a rational order in the social sphere is another side of the social justice,which is the important characteristic of a humanized world.The humanized world is a world of meaning,which will be presented in details in part IV.

Ⅱ.Accomplishing self

As mentioned above,accomplishing things refers to knowing and transforming the world;similarly,accomplishing self means knowing and transforming oneself.It’s emphasized that the “one” here refers to anyone,any human being,or every actual social agent.Accomplishing self is similar to accomplishing things,which is the process of transforming the primordial being into the social being,and changing a mere biological human into a social individual.It is a process of self-cultivation,which is a critical difference between animals and humans:animals remain in the primordial state all the time,while humans overcome the biological property and possess certain social characteristics.Accomplishing things is to make things meet the historical need and the development of human being,while accomplishing self is the self-improvement of human beings and the realization of their values and ideals.Meanwhile,meaning is generated in the process of accomplishing things and accomplishing self.

The consciousness of a mission is the question like “What one ought to take responsibility for?” Human beings should not only take things from the world,but also contribute some to the world.Just as Kennedy said in his Presidential Inaugural Address “Don’t ask what your country can do for you,ask what you can do for your country.;don’t ask what America will do for you,but what together we can do for the freedom of man.” Human beings should take responsibility and duty to push the world forward.That is the real meaning of one’s own being,which drives the society and the world to develop continuously.

Ⅲ.Genesis of the meaning

1.Meaning in the Context of Accomplishing Oneself and Accomplishing Things

Professor YANG Guorong analyzes the meaning of “meaning” from two perspectives:one is at the level of understanding and cognition,the other is at the level of ends and values.In brief,in the sense of understanding and cognition,meaning is comprehensible or understandable.Meaning is expressed via symbols,signs and languages.Sometimes,symbols cannot become meaning without explanations or metaphors.For example,it is hard to perceive the Chinese saying:though death befalls all men,it may be heavier than Mount Tai or lighter than a goose’s feather.At first sight,there is no similarity and connection among the death,Mount Tai and a goose’s feather.The meaning is generated through a kind of rhetorical devices — metaphor,which is the tool we use.After the linguistic transformation,the value of death is associated with Mount Tai and a goose’s feather.The former (Mount Tai) means a great person or a hero’s death,which is a loss to the world,while the latter ( a goose’s feather) refers to a common person or an evil man’s death,who plays no role in the society,or even the man did some bad things affecting or preventing the development of the world.In this sense,the saying is rich of meaning with its own intrinsic logic by means of metaphors.

At the level of ends and values,meaning means values.If things in the world contribute a lot to accomplish things and accomplish self,it has a real meaning.Otherwise,it is meaningless.YANG Guorong took the Chinese proverb “fetching a glass of water to put out a flaming cart of wood” as an example.Compared with “a flaming cart of wood”,“a glass of water” is meaningless,not because it is incomprehensible,but because it lacks the substantial or positive value.In a broader sense,meaning at the level of ends and values involves the morality.Morality,with other norms and laws,binds the social members and enable them to live in an orderly and fair society.In this way,human beings can transform the world as an end itself,and realize their values to achieve accomplishing self.

The emergence of meaning is by nature relative.Without professional learning and training,people do not understand the meaning of mathematical signs and formulas,that is to say these mathematical signs and formulas are meaningless to them.While these mathematical signs and formulas are meaningful for the person with the background knowledge,so this is the difference between understandability and actual understanding.Similarly,meaning at the level of ends and values is also relative.The peasant movement presents a positive meaning to the progressive class and people who want to reform the bad social rules,while it is negative to the landowners who want to preserve the traditional principle and social class.

2.Meaning in the World of Spirit

The domain of values concerns the relationship between things and human needs,and the act of evaluating.The meaning of water and fire to human being is deeply rooted in the sense of its value.The water can be used for drinking and washing,while the fire can be used for keeping warm and cooking.The meaning in the domain of values is concerned with the ethical realm,the aesthetics,and the religious realm.The questions like “what is good?” are always asked in the ethical dimension,while “What is beautiful?” is the question asked in the dimension of aesthetic domain.The genesis of meaning is related to human being’s imagination directly and closely,affects and experiences,because beauty cannot be appreciated without the basic background knowledge.It is just as a person who cannot understand the beauty and special meaning in poems or novels without knowledge in literature.Religion is the ultimate concern of being,which keeps human being’s spirit and mind in a balanced and peaceful state.In this way,Kant said that the religion is the conscientiousness.From ethics and aesthetics to religion,a world of meaning is invested with many senses of value.

The world of spirit and the human state of mind shifts the direction to the meaning of one’s own being.Human beings begin to investigate “what I can do for the world?” in addition to the questions such as “what is it?” and “what does it mean?” The right is always connected with responsibility.The world of spirit and the human state of mind mainly focus on two problems:the pursuit of an ideal and the consciousness of a mission,which has been discussed in part III.To be brief,the former (the pursuit of an ideal) corresponds to the question “What can one hope for?” or “What ought one to hope for?” and the latter (the consciousness of a mission) corresponds to the question “What ought one to take responsibility for?” They are the self-reflective inquiry “What does one exist for?” reflecting the deep concern of human being for the meaning of one’s own being.Perhaps Zhang Zai,a famous philosopher in Song Dynasty partly answered this tough question by saying:“establish an affective mind for the heavens and the earth,establish a way (dao in Chinese) for the livelihood of the people,continue the line of learning that leads to sagehood,and start a world of peace for all generations to come.”

3.Meaning and Reality

The genesis of meaning depends on the practical action of human being.The trees in the virgin forest are meaningless because they do not enter the sphere of human being’s practice,so they have no value to human being.Through human activities and practices,the trees are cut down and made into products such as tables,beds and some other necessities.In this sense,the trees in the virgin forest become actual and possess meanings in the process of accomplishing things.

Meanwhile,professor Yang hold that while transforming Nature in-itself into Nature for-humans,human being continuously gives human life a civilized or humanized mode of being,which makes a world of meaning take shape at the level of everyday life (Yang 2016:190).The everyday life is the real sense and the reality of the world.A philosopher called Alfred Schutz even believes that the world of everyday life is the predominant form of social reality.At the early stage of human being,the need of biological survival,or the maintenance and the continuation of the life,is the most important task,so most of human being’s everyday life used to be occupied by how to get sufficient food and water.With the development of society and the progress of human civilization,how to live with dignity and realize the ideals and values become the content of the human being’s everyday life.

Social reality not only includes everyday life mentioned above,but also the reality existing in the form of institutions,organizations,and interacting communities and in their associated activities and modes of being.The latter (in the form of institutions and organizations) presents rich socio-historical meanings and features in stability,which involves broad domains such as economic,political,educational and cultural fields.The social reality embodies both the subjective human ideals and human ends,and the objective needs of the evolution of society.Moreover,the social reality is in accordance with human nature.The substantial content of social reality is being and practicing of humans,which is a world of meaning,so the multi-faceted meanings take shape and unfold into concrete forms of being in different dimensions.In this sense,the social reality is the cognitive and practical activity itself,and it is the concrete form of a world of meaning.

After overcoming personal and objective dependence,the individual gains personal independence,the realization of possibility and the actualization of potentiality in the process of accomplishing oneself (self-accomplishment or self-realization).The meaning of the individual’s being is expressed via pursuing free individuality and the whole-sided development.

With the interaction of free development of individuals and free development of all,the aim of free development of human being is to accomplish self as well as to reform the world or accomplish things.While the fact is that the meaning of the individual’s value is revealed at the level of ontology,and the free,genuine individuality linked to the whole-sided development of human being gives specific substance to this meaning.Such process of generating meaning shows furthermore the historical and axiological dimensions of a world of meaning at the level of individual existence.

Ⅳ.Conclusion

Combined the history of philosophy with the personal reflection,professor Yang’s philosophy is not only based on Chinese traditional philosophy,absorbing a lot of nutrition from the ancient and contemporary philosophers,but also fully understands the different foreign philosophers and takes all the advanced theories and wisdom into his own philosophy system.In this way,his specific metaphysics come into being and pose a deep and wide influence at home and abroad.The Mutual Cultivation of Self and Things explained the process of accomplishing things and accomplishing self through the ontological,axiological and epistemological dimensions,with the genesis of meaning as the core,presenting the being of human and the being of the world in a multi-faceted way.Just as Hans-Georg Moeller commented in the foreword of the book:professor Yang Guorong’s philosophy is “based on previous contribution,but supposed to predict the future.He is one of the most creative and prominent Chinese philosophers in the current time.”

〔1〕Yang Guorong,The Mutual Cultivation of Self and Things:A Contemporary Chinese Philosophy of the Meaning of Being,Bloomington and Indianapolis:Indiana University Press,2016.

〔2〕Chengji yu chengwu:yiyi shijie de shengcheng,The Mutual Cultivation of Self and Things:the Generation of the World of Meaning,Beijing:Peking University Press,2011.

〔3〕Daolun,A Treatise on Dao,Shanghai:East China Normal University Press,2009.

〔4〕 lunli yu cunzai,Ethics and Being:Treatise on Moral Philosophy,Shanghai:East China Normal University Press,2009.

〔5〕The Maturation of the Self and the Refinement of Things:The Generation of the World of Meaning.Contemporary Chinese Thought 43,No.4,2012,pp.51-52.

About the author：Du Xuan(1984—),doctoral candidate,School of Liberal Arts,Nanjing University;Hong Zengliu,professor at School of Foreign Studies,Anhui University.

〔*〕This paper is the staged achievement of the Major Project of the Key Research Base for Humanities and Social Science of the Ministry of Education — The Humanistic Discourse and the 20th Century Chinese Literature(12JJD750019).