秦汉农民问题与古典宇宙论的兴起

An Interpretation of the Rise of Qin-Han Cosmology from the Perspective of the Peasant Problem

一般认为,秦汉古典宇宙论的政治功能主要在限制大一统君权,但这不足以解释其在秦汉兴起的复杂原因。实际上,它并非只是儒生单方面限制君主的理论工具,而是君臣双方基于大一统农民问题之共识而达成的治国框架。由于大一统郡县制、户籍制的严密化,民众如犯罪或不堪苛政,已不具备封建时代的逃亡条件,故往往会对抗政权。这成为大一统治理的结构性难题。汉代人将此问题归结为阴阳不和,实即国家行为不能顺应农民生活的四时节律。由此,调和阴阳成为汉代治国首务,具体实践即以月令为宇宙图式的治理体系。在此政治形势下,汉代儒学吸纳并重新阐释了月令图式,发展出了具有教化意义的阴阳刑德论,以及能进行广泛道德规谏的天人感应论。考察这一段思想演变,可以看到农民问题与阴阳问题的深层关联,正是宇宙论得以被君主接纳并向汉代思想全面渗透的政治基础。

The cosmology of the Qin and Han Dynasties has long been considered as serving the function of limiting the Chinese monarchy in the framework of Grand Unification(da yi tong),but this can hardly exhaust the complicated causes behind its rise in that particular period.Rather than merely a Confucian tool to restrain the monarch,the Qin and Han cosmology is actually a kind of governmental agreement based on the problem of peasant uprisings and reached between the monarch and Confucian officials.This paper argues that the peasant problem after the political unification of the Qin Dynasty was the essential reason for the rise of the cosmology,and it provided the Confucians were the legitimacy to use the theory of calamities(zaiyi)to criticize political realities.