回到船山(下)

Turning to Chuanshan

几千年来的中国思想史,由于特殊的历史条件和文化背景,自然地形成了如下几个重大的思想史难题:一、道德主体何以证立;二、内圣外王如何贯通;三、生命意义何以在学理上予以说明。对于这些难题,古来多少思想家都在论说,就连现代新儒家诸贤亦竭尽心力。可时至今日,惟有三百年前的衡阳王子给出了合理的解答。他通过对“气”这一范畴的独特理解,构建起一座以历史本体论为骨架的哲学大厦,且凭此而对诸如政治、经济、历史、道德、宗教等论域提出了全新的解释模式,其见解之深刻,观念之现代,远在20世纪的熊十力、牟宗三等人之上。对于这样一份厚重而又富有现代价值的思想遗产,吾人实应将其宣扬于世界,功德于现实。

Thousands of years of history of China＇s thought, due to the peculiar historical condition and cultural background, has formed the following difficult questions concerning history of thought： 1. In what way can moral subject be proved？ 2. How to integrate cultivating character with managing family, state and the world？ 3. In what way can the meaning of life be demonstrated theoretically？ Many ancient thinkers tried to expound these, even modern Confucianists are exhausting their efforts to give answers to them. However, until now, only Wang Chuanshan who lived 300 years ago has given a reasonable explanation. Through his peculiar understanding of the category of material force （qi）, he constructed a big mansion of philosophy with historical ontology as its framework. On the basis of this, he advanced wholly new mode of interpretation on fields of study ranging from politics, economy, history, morality to religion. His profundity of thoughts and modernity of ideas are superior to those of Xiong Xiaoli and Mou Zongsan. With such heritage of thought, rich and modern in value, we should disseminate it and make it serve our society.