面子本质现象学新疏

A Phenomenological Study of the Essence of “Face”

百余年来,中外学界关于面子的理论研究成果显著,但面子的本质却始终未有定论。本质既然是事物固有的根本属性,必然具有唯一性,因此中西方面子观存有会通的可能性。通过对汉字"面"的甲骨文字体的阐释,以及对英语、法语单词"face"和法语"visage"一词的古拉丁语辞源的考证,辅之以身体现象学的论述,可归结出中西面子观之共性在于视看;秉承生命现象学比照分析自我-显现与对象-显现两种现象性,则有助于进一步厘清前人面子理论探索的局限性,提出对面子本质的新诠释,从而更好地理解中西面子观在各自不同伦理文化背景下的差异。

The past hundred years have seen fruitful theoretical studies of "face", however, its nature remain indeterminate. With its intrinsic fundamentals, the essence of "face"must be unique. Based on such uniqueness, it is therefore possible that the Chinese and western ideas of face share commonality. Adopting phenomenology of body, this paper researches the bone-and-shell inscription of the Chinese character Mian(面)and the Latin etymology of"face"in English and"visage"in French, and concludes that the commonality of the Chinese and western concepts of"face"lies in"to see". At the same time, the analysis of the phenomenalities of self-appearance and object-appearance in line with phenomenology of life is conducive to determine the limitations of former studies, better interpret the essence of "face"and understand the differences of"face"in the east and the west with their distinctive ethical and cultural backdrops.