On Chinese Cultural Subjectivity Regarding Exemplary and Narrative Language: Based on Ricoeur’s Research of Narrative

Exemplary language can, on the one hand, assist a listener to understand what a speaker intends to express, and, on the other hand, provoke a kind of practical force to the listener. Exemplary language is everywhere in our daily life, such as the bedtime stories told by a mother to her child, literary works, and judicial precedents. Many Western philosophers have expounded on this type of language. Exemplary language has become a topic for philosophical discussions. In Chinese classics, there are many expressions using exemplary language, but in different forms. Was there any philosophical reflection on these exemplary languages? The differences between the Chinese and the Western exemplary language initiate our discussion about the different subjectivity of exemplary language, or narrative subjectivity, for narrative will be discussed in this article as an extraordinary exemplary language. As a kind of exemplary language, narrative is analyzed by Ricoeur into two elements: time and meaning. Is his analysis also valid for Chinese narrative language? Can we discuss the difference of narrative subjectivity according to these two elements? The author is going to trace the origins of different subjectivity by analyzing distinct ways of creating characters/words which determinate different language forms in Chinese and the Western culture. The author finds that “linear time” (or objective time) still plays a significant role in the Western culture; by contrast, subjective time seems more dominant in Chinese culture. This also determines the narrative time for Chinese. As for the meaning, there are different purposes and ways of using narrative in Chinese culture and the Western culture, which are reflected, for example, in the different purposes of the Chinese and Western drama. This article aims to explore Chinese narrative subjectivity based on Ricoeur’s research of narrative.