: Geaney describes a cultural shift 2,000 years ago where a society valuing oral and visual balance transformed into an "empire of the text". Guide to Key Sections
: Examines the implications of ming (names) as something external compared to yan (speech) from within. The Emergence of Word-Meaning in Early China: N...
: Rather than assuming "meaning" always existed as a concept, Geaney argues that it emerged as a response to the explosion of textual production and encounters with radically different writing forms like Buddhist sutras. : Geaney describes a cultural shift 2,000 years
: A central argument is that the term yi (typically meaning duty or morality) transitioned into a metalinguistic term for "meaning" because it already functioned as an external, normative "model" for interpreting texts. normative "model" for interpreting texts.