1.3 Hermeneutics Methodology and Heritage Interpre...
In order to rationally protect and utilize these historic personalities’ residences, and integrate them into contemporary life, their interpretation is key.How do we understand and interpret these homes? How can we properly preserve and develop them in a manner that retains their heritage? Modern hermeneutics as a qualitative methodology paradigm of humanities science that will provide us the possible understanding and interpretation process, and produce reasonable research methods for the preservation and development of these valuable residences.
We may have experienced an abstract painting which after being created by a passionate artist can produce an unexpected effect.Interestingly, visitors in a gallery will try to imagine and understand paintings based on their own experience, and the results can be very different.Of course, researchers should be more adept at studying the artist’s personality, living status, style and psychological activity to discover the original meaning of the painting.This study process, however, will inevitably be colored by the researcher’s personal biases, which makes it impossible to restore the original meaning of the painting.But during this process, researchers may find a more profound significance which the artist did not intend.As the famous French philosopher Paul Ricoeur said “What is sought is no longer an intention hidden behind the text, but a world unfolded in front of it.” [11]This interpretational concept is the core thought of modern hermeneutics.
Hermeneutics, initially, was a skill which was applied to “the exegesis text interpretation, especially the interpretation of biblical texts, wisdom literature, and philosophical texts”.[12]German philosopher Friedrich Schleiermacher broadened the scope of interpretation and developed hermeneutics to be a general science for all human texts and modes of communication.Wilhelm Dilthey distinguished between natural sciences and human sciences, established the foundation of hermeneutics methodology for human sciences.He claimed that, unlike the natural sciences, understanding is the key for the exploration of the inner meaning of human action and productivity.He still aimed to discover the original meaning of works, but realized the initiative of the reader and believed that “The ultimate aim of hermeneutics is to understand the author better than he understands himself.”[13].Martin Heidegger developed the hermeneutics to be a philosophy relevant to ontology.He shifted the focus from the interpretation of works to the existential understanding of human and society.Later, Hans-Georg Gadamer developed hermeneutics from ontology philosophy to be a methodology and epistemology.He stressed the experience of the interpreter, and pointed out that prejudice is an element of our understanding[14].The result of understanding is very different for every interpreter.He explained how to understand through the Historically-effected Consciousness and Fusion of Horizons concept.Paul Ricoeur developed hermeneutics based on phenomenology, and combined hermeneutics with structuralism, psychology, and linguistics, further strengthened the practicality of the hermeneutics methodology.Therefore, unlike traditional hermeneutics, rather than an interpretation skill of text, modern hermeneutics is an important methodology and philosophy for understanding and interpreting the human science such as human behavior and society.(https://www.daowen.com)
Ancient Chinese scholars also developed the hermeneutic methodology in the process of interpreting texts.When Chen Shan, a scholar of the Southern Song Dynasty, expounded the method of reading, he pointed out that the “Reader should know the way of going into and out of the book....Studying the original meaning of the text is going into the book, and to develop the meaning in combination with reality is going out of the book.Therefore, if the reader can’t go into the book, he can’t really understand the author’s intention; if the reader can’t get out of the book, he will fossilize in the book.”[15]This reading method fully reflects the dialectical unity of objective understanding and subjective interpretation.
As a human science, cultural heritage and related tangible and intangible information will inevitably be read and interpreted by different audiences in different ages.Obviously, how it is preserved and developed depends on how people understand and interpret it.In fact, inappropriate actions in preservation and development due to misunderstanding and wrong interpretations already have degraded heritage sites, even causing devastating damage.Therefore, before protection, display and utilization, a proper understanding and interpretation in accordance with the characteristics of the times and the needs of the public is necessary.