在現今的社會中，「甘露」這個字詞不僅出現在宗教活動、儒、佛、道經典，也出現在日常生活之中，有時候甚至只是一種隨意拼貼。在許多特殊的場合之中，仍然可以見到這個語詞的使用，正因為這個語詞經常出現，太過於普遍、也太過於生活化，使得一般人不會追根究底的追問－到底甚麼是「甘露」？然而，在不同的語境之下，「甘露」指涉的意義不盡相同，代表著不同的宇宙觀與知識建構，使得「甘露」具有一詞多義的複雜性意義，這個語詞究竟是屬於宇宙之間的自然現象，還是儒學或宗教文本傳達教義的工具？成為文化傳統中似是而非、難以區辨真假且令人費解的語詞（doxa）。這個問題牽涉到知識建構、思維模式，以及知識的傳佈的方式，也就是祥瑞話語如何鑲嵌在人們的腦海中，成為中國人感應世界的思維方式，為人們認知與使用；並且，這個語詞及其背後所代表的知識建構，是否有所轉變，成為本篇論文撰寫的主要問題意識，誠然如顧頡剛在〈秦漢間統一的由來和戰國人對於世界的想像〉中提出古人如何描述「世界的想像」，那麼我的研究將以物質出發，將焦點放在中世紀，討論帝制中國前後如何將物質想像安置入知識系譜中，以及這個物質想像如何在現實世界中對人的意識產生制約與溝通的作用，具體呈現不同歷史時期，人們對「甘露」此一物質想像的文化心態。
The phrase, "Sweet Dew", appears not only in religious activities and the classics of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, but also in our daily life. Indeed, it could be a mosaic phrase at will. In many special occasions, we see the phrase in use. Because it is too common, widespread, and familiar in our daily life that ordinary people would not question what the phrase means. In fact, “Sweet Dew” refers to different meanings in different linguistic contexts, representing different cosmological and epistemological constructs. “Sweet Dew” is polysemous. Does it refer to the natural phenomena in the universe or a tool to convey Confucian and religious Doctrines? It has become a doxa in our culture, which becomes so puzzling that it is difficult to distinguish between truth and falsehood. The issue involves the spread of constructing knowledge, modes of thinking, and dissemination of knowledge. It is how auspicious words are embedded in people's minds that shape how the Chinese think in the World—the way they reason and use. This study deals with the issue of knowledge construction and the evolution of the meaning of the phrase. I follow what Gu Jie Gang did in his “The Unification between the Qin and Han Dynasty and Imagination of the World by People of the Warring States Period”, where he proposed how the ancient people described their world. I focus my study on the material aspect and the Middle Ages, and analyze how the material imagination was placed in the system of knowledge prior and after the demise of Imperial China, which conditions and shapes how the Chinese communicate. My purpose is to reveal the Chinese cultural mentality of the “Sweet Dew” as a material imagination that is manifested during different historical periods.
