Abstract

This is an attempt at construing descriptions of cognitive activities found in the Neiye, an early Chinese text preserved in the Guanzi compilation. Through the notions of metaphor and cognitive model, and by means of hermeneutic principles developed by George Lakoff and other theorists, I scrutinize the text, trying to unravel the peculiar understanding of the cognitive functioning of the body upon which it is predicated. I focus on four words: xin, shen, qi, and qing. As a result of this enquiry, the physicality of cognitive activities in the Neiye stands out clearly. The importance of the body in cognitive activities should appear as clearly in translations if we want to get closer to the Chinese understanding of their own writings instead of reading them through categories which only make sense in our own constructed reality, our Lebenswelt.