ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book identifies a particular semiotic model that recurs in the Madhyamaka texts of Kumārajīva, the Vijñanavada texts of Paramārtha and Xuánzàng and the deconstructionist texts of Derrida and that arises from a critique of vulgar metaphysics and from a criticism of some naïve anti-metaphysic critiques. According to tradition, Líu Xié's attempt at constructing a literary theory had a Buddhist origin: As an editor of the Buddhist scriptures at the Dìnglín Temple, he had a fair exposure to Buddhist theoretical constructions. In Buddhism the Eight Negations reject the binary relations of identity and difference, and emphasize the tendency of the sign to pass over to its other. In presenting a critique of the condition of possibility as well as impossibility of Western philosophy, Derrida does not want to abandon Western philosophy altogether.
