Deconstruction and Reconstruction of the Onto - A New Interpretation of the History of Japanese Thought - Ontology and Interpretation - (Issue 4)

Author: Cheng Chung-ying
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-07-01
Features: The theme of this issue explores the role and status of ontology-hermeneutics in the ideological and cultural transformation of an ethnic group or tradition. Such a transformation must have both the structure and reconstruction of ontological awareness. This issue is titled "The Deconstruction and Reconstruction of Onto-Hermeneutics" and was compiled and edited by Han Jun, invited and appointed by the author as the executive editor. Han Jun and the author met at the Second International Daoist Conference, where they engaged in fruitful academic exchanges. Later, the author met him in Tokyo, where he deeply appreciated the author's development of ontology-hermeneutics. The author was also interested in Han Jun's research on Japan's modern academic and cultural reform movements, particularly valuing his study of the rise of Japanese classical studies and its impact from the mid-18th to the early 19th century. This research in the Japanese academic field has long been unresolved, but Han Jun, with his profound knowledge of Japanese and extensive background in ancient and medieval Chinese and Chinese thought history, delved into the original works of Otsu Shūrai, Daitō Shuntai, and Kaibō Seirō, referencing a large number of Japanese and Chinese documents. He wrote a highly regarded doctoral dissertation on the study of Japan's modern Neo-Confucianism, which was first published in Chinese in 2003. In this issue's collection of articles, we further analyze and highlight the transformation, structure, and reconstruction of the onto-hermeneutical paradigm, emphasizing its great importance in methodology and ontology. We also further analyze and highlight the importance of interpretation based on the onto-hermeneutical paradigm in integrating thought and establishing a new onto-hermeneutical paradigm era for new social, economic, and cultural changes. Theoretically, it not only demonstrates that ontological awareness involves the reconstruction of an "effect history" but also clarifies that understanding and interpretation are important pathways for reconstructing social values and norms. However, I also point out that the meaning of ontology is not limited to "effect history"; it has profound implications in ontology, epistemology, and value philosophy. Regarding this point, the author elaborates on it and discusses it in detail in this issue.