A Theory of Objects: Transformations in Northern Song Conceptions of “Emblematic Forms in the Construction of Tools”

Abstract

At the turn of the twentieth century, scholars put forward the idea of Chinese artifacts from different perspectives in order to overturn the prejudice against "artifacts" in traditional Chinese philosophy. In particular, they considered the normative role of artifacts for public literacy. Recent scholarly research shows that contemporary scholars are increasingly inclined to use Chinese artifactological ideas to explain ancient Chinese concepts and beliefs about artifacts. In fact, however, this idea of artifact design and production can be traced back to the Song Dynasty. The scholars of the Song Dynasty interpreted the contents of the I Ching about "ware" from a new perspective, legitimizing the study of "ware" and forming the original Chinese idea of artifact theory, which was widely applied to various disciplines in the Qing Dynasty. In this essay, I explore the changing conceptions of ‘object’ and ‘emblem’ through the Song, through differentiation and analysis of the differing contexts in which the phrase ‘zhi qi shang xiang’ occurs. Through close readings of the context in which it appears in Song official histories, incidental writings (biji) and essay collections, I am able to tease out the concrete significance of the phrase, allowing us to analyse it transformations over time. I start with analysis of the original source of the phrase to seek its earliest connotations as a basis on which to distinguish and classify the later, alternative readings it gains. Subsequently, I move into an analysis of Chen Xiliang’s Zhi qi shang xiang lun and the debate it generated to explore the Song transformations of the meaning of the phrase and the reasons for the semantic shift which occurred during this period. From this, I determine that between the Northern Song to the Southern song there was a shift in the approach to tools, from uncertainty to a definite affirmation of their importance and aesthetic value.