| Abstract |
In this paper I use three categories which are borrowed from western hermeneutics to explore Cheng, Hao’s thought about Confucian classics interpretation. These categories are epistemology, ontology and aesthetics. According the former two, I make such a hermeneutical distinction between the search for “objective understanding” of the meaning of classics and the intention of author, and the search for “subjective cultivation or testimony” of interpreter’s moral life. It is worth to be mentioned that in the development of western hermeneutics, epistemology and its accompanier methodology were once in the dominant position, until the “ontological turn” of modern hermeneutics started with the resistance against this position. But this kind of opposition has never occurred in discourses of the Confucianists (ex. Cheng, Hao). By their classics interpretation, epistemology can join the partnership on the ontological cultivation of the Confucianists. Furthermore, Cheng, Hao still use a hermeneutic-aesthetic strategy to evaluate historical personages. By this evaluation, the sensible materials will transform itself into the symbolic image and thereby lets the non-sensible moral ideas be manifested. The Confucian learners can therefore be inspired more effectively.
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