荀子“正刑名”思想浅析

A Brief Analysis of Xunzi’s Thought of “the Proper Name of Punishment”

荀子提出"正刑名"的文化背景,是春秋战国时期以邓析为代表的名家"析辞破律以逐利"的文化学术观念。当时有学者将"刑名"由维持社会稳定的强制规范扭曲为钻营律法漏洞以谋取不正当利益的"诉讼之术",即以"司法解释""刑事诉讼"等领域的知识技能为工具,进而寻求破解政令、法律以谋利的"刑辩之学"。为解决这一问题,荀子提出"正名",论证"名称""语词"是出于社会交际的需要而人为制定的,以此指明"名称"的使用要遵循社会约定。此外,荀子还提出"语词的使用规范",提出使用"既有的一词多义"的语词时,要注意辨析其"能指"究竟对应哪一个"所指";而当创造新的"语词"时,更要保证其"能指"与"所指"的对应关系要确定且唯一。荀子希望通过以上几种用"名"规范,来约束邓析等人对"名称""语词"的曲解与滥用,从而消除产生"析辞破律以逐利"这类文化学术观念的语言基础。

Xunzi proposed"the proper name of punishment"against the background of cultural and academic idea of misrepresenting the law of speeches to pursue profit of famous scholars represented by Dengxi during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.Some scholars twisted the criminal name from the mandatory norms of maintaining social stability to a litigation means of taking advantage of flaws in law to seek unjustified interests,that is,knowledge in the fields like judicial interpretation,criminal procedure was used as a tool to explore the study of criminal defense which profited from an analysis of government decrees and laws.To solve this problem,Xunzi put forward the proper name and demonstrated the names and words were made due to human social communication to indicate the use of names should follow social conventions.In addition,Xunzi also put forward the standards of using words.When existing words with polysemy were used,it was necessary to distinguish the signified of the signifier.When new words were created,the corresponding relationship between the signifier and the signified should be determined as unique one.Xunzi hoped to restrict misinterpretation and abuse of names and words by Dengxi and others through above norms of names,thus eliminating language foundation of such cultural and academic idea as"mispresenting the law of speeches to pursuit profit".