两种逍遥与两种自由

Two Kinds of Xiaoyao(逍遥) and Two Kinds of Freedom

庄子的自由追求逍遥于四海之外,无极之野,是超越现实既定境遇的精神感受。郭象的自由则是安于性分或自足其性的逍遥,是安于现实的既定境遇的心境。庄子与郭象是两种逍遥的代表,也是中国古代传统中的自由传统的主要代表。庄子和郭象这种内在感受式的自由传统与现代的或西方的突出个人自主性的自由传统有根本不同。然而,这两种不同的自由传统并不是完全不相干的,而是可以衔接或转化的。按照柏林的自由理论,庄子和郭象的逍遥就是从否定方面定义的自由、或曰有限定性的自由的进一步发展。因此,中国古代的逍遥传统与现代的政治方面的自由是人类所追求的自由光谱中的不同区域。二者各有不可替代的现实意义和理论意义,并且是可以互补的。

Zhuangzi（庄子） ＇s philosophy features xiaoyao（逍遥） or ＂free and easy wandering,＂ which denotes a spiritual journey beyond the earthly world and life and enlightening experience in union with Dao（道） or the uni- verse. Guo Xiang（郭象）, the historically recognized commentator of the Zhuangzi（庄子）, however, redirects the term xiaoyao（逍遥） to the everyday world based on individual nature and destiny. Thus, Zhuangzi（庄子） ＇ s theories represent the spiritual transcend freedom, and Guo＇s the worldly boundless feelings. Zhuang and Guo together may be taken as typical philosophers who represent prevailing notion of personal freedom in traditional China. The positions of Zhuang and Guo, with their traditional Eastern notion of freedom, seem to be in opposition to modern or Western concepts of freedom, which could be represented by Isaiah Berlin, who proposes the two well-known concepts of liberty, namely, negative freedom and positive freedom. Although negative freedom suggests a bound of freedom for an individual or a body of people, and the positive freedom suggests no such bound, they are both political and active liberty in social life. Thug, the two kinds of freedom are rather different from Zhuang and Guo＇s xiaoyao（逍遥）. However, there is not an abyss between modern concepts of liberty and traditional notions of xiaoyao. According to Berlin, one must liberate oneself from desires that one knows one cannot realize. It is as if one had performed a strategic retreat into an inner citadel-one＇s own reason and soul. Thus, we can say that the two kinds of xiaoyao（逍遥） of Zhuang and Guo are just a kind of retreat from true life and the miserable world. However, unlike what Berlin has said, the spiritual freedom proposed by Zhuang and Guo is not so passive： it has deep insight and foresight into how we should face dangerous and uncontrollable situations.