Buddhism and Deconstruction: Towards a Comparative Semiotics

by Dr Youxuan Wang, Wang Youxuan

Overview

This is a semiotic study of a corpus of texts that Kumârajîva (344-413 CE), Paramârtha (499-569 CE) and Xuanzang (599-664 CE) transmitted from India to China, featuring a critical reading of the Dazhidu Lun (T1509, Mahâ-Prajñâpâramitâ-upadeúa-Úâstra), San Wuxing Lun (T1617, Try-asvabhâva-prakara.na), and Guangbai Lun (T1571, Catu.húataka-úâstra-kârika). Focusing its attention on the Mahâyâna Buddhist notion of samatâ, it identifies a Buddhist semiotics which anticipates Derrida's invocation of the notion of the Same in his deconstruction of binary oppositions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138862500
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/04/2015
Pages:	242
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Wang, Dr Youxuan; Youxuan, Wang

Table of Contents

Introduction: The pursuit of signs; Chapter 1 Three grades of understanding in the Hīnayāna analytic system: A structural study of the list of seventy-five factors; Chapter 2 Undoing the Hīnayāna Onto-epistemological categories: A semiotic approach to the list of eighteen points about emptiness; Chapter 3 Three ways of looking at the un-arisen: The Same in Kumārajīva’s Madhyamaka system; Chapter 4 Dialectic of construction and de-construction in the Vijñānavāda system: The Same in Paramārtha’s Shèlùn system; Chapter 5 Deconstruction of time in Dharmapāla’s commentary on Āryadeva’s Treatise in Four Hundred Verses: The Same in Xuánzàng’s Fǎxiàng system; Chapter 6 Three ways of looking at the un-arisen in French deconstruction: Derrida’s conception of the Same; Chapter 7 Afterword: Three semiotic models;

Editorial Reviews

'All in all, this is an expert and often brilliant work.' -Japanese Journal of Religious Studies

'I found Wang's project most exciting and valuable...the book is an excellent addition to contemporary studies of Buddhist and comparative philosophy.' - Philosophy East and West

From the Publisher