关键词: 新考据学, 实证主义, 物证优先, 语言转向, 文字本位

Abstract: In the process of modern transformation of Chinese traditional textual criticism, a new textual historiography represented by the “skeptical school” came into being. Under the effect of scientific skepticism, the authenticity of the ancient documents was seriously questioned. With the support of the principles of positivism, the method of “quadruple evidence method” and the theory of “material evidence first” have been developed as the sign of the “Archaeological Turn”. This article points out the complexity of language issues through the “Linguistic Turn” in the background of hermeneutics and analytical philosophy, and indicates that the rationality of “character-centrism” in Chinese culture in comparison with phonecentrism in western linguistics, and concludes that the limitations of archaeology itself leads to the limitations of the theory of “material evidence first”. This article attempts to find the presuppositions of those ideas which made a hierarchical ranking among language, writing and material and tries to reveal the incoherency caused by them.

Key words: new textual criticism, positivism, material evidence first, Linguistic Turn, character-centered