Abstract

This dissertation explores a distinctive way of thinking by looking into the tripartite theme of thinking/writing/thinging that is at the very center of Heidegger's philosophy, Fenollosa/Pound's poetics, and the Chinese literary and philosophical tradition associated with Taoism. The focus of the dissertation is therefore on Heidegger's articulation of thinking in terms of Being, thinging and poetizing, Fenollosa/Pound's interpretation of the Chinese written language in its peculiar relation to the thing and genuine thinking, and the Chinese literary and philosophical tradition that consistently dwells on the relationship among thinking, writing and thinging. The dissertation thus starts with Heidegger's rediscovery of "physis" in its relation to truth, poetry, thinking, language as well as the "thing," trying to set up a framework for the entire project, where the tripartite theme occupies the center stage. The author then moves on to Fenollosa/Pound's "graphic poetics" by way of investigating the genesis of the "ideogrammic method," intending to shift the controversy surrounding their interpretation of the Chinese written language to a different level where the interpretation is evaluated not in reference to the linguistic "facts" about the language but to the essential relationship among thinking, writing and thinging, and to show the differences between "ideogrammic thinking" that Fenollosa and Pound have tried to define and the Western traditional thinking largely informed by what Heidegger calls "the grammatical view of language." Finally, the notion of "ziran" is explored as it is embodied in philosophical Taoism as well as in classical Chinese literary theory, with the attempt to show the significant similarities between "physis" and "ziran," and what is fundamental in the Chinese literary and philosophical tradition. The distictive way of thinking is therefore what Derrida calls "the necessary decentering" that defies the scientific way of thinking by questioning logic, grammar, knowledge and metaphysics characteristic of what is commonly called thinking