中国人文思想史上的六次启蒙(上)——兼论周代是中国思想史上“‘人’的觉醒”时期

The Six Enlightenments in the History of Chinese Humanity Thoughts——Zhou Dynasty as Human Awakening Period in the History of Chinese Thoughts

"启蒙"的本义是开发蒙昧、清除荒谬、发现真理。"启蒙"并不是"五四"运动和邓小平倡导的思想解放运动的专利。在此前的中国古代人文思想领域,曾经发生过四次启蒙,它们依次出现于周代、六朝、明清、近代,启蒙的对象分别是夏商的神本蒙昧主义、汉代的"性善情恶"论和"性三品"说、隋唐宋元以儒家道学—理学为代表的唯理性主义,以及整个中国古代君主专制下的荒谬悖理的纲常伦理体系。而"五四"运动和邓小平倡导的思想解放运动则是第五次、第六次启蒙,它们的启蒙对象分别是古代"奴隶道德"和现代"极左"思潮。原古以溯今,中国人文思想史上的种种规律性的重合昭然若揭:蒙昧至极,必生启蒙;真理逾过半步,即成谬误;人文的真理相通,谬误也相通;在重复的谬误处可找寻教训,在重复的启蒙处可总结真理———它是我们今天进行价值伦理重构、推动中华民族伟大腾飞的宝贵资源。非常感谢祁志祥教授接受我们约稿,由于文章较长,特分两期刊出,以飨读者。

The original meaning of enlightenment is to explore obscuration, to eliminate absurdity, and to discovery truth. In the field of Chinese ancient humanity thoughts, we have ever experienced six enlightenments. In chronological order, they occurred in Zhou dynasty, Six dynasties, Ming and Qing, modem times, and two important events were May Fourth Movement, and Deng Xiaoping＇ s ideological liberation. And the six corresponding enlightened subjects are divinity - based ohseuratism in Xia and Shang times, the theories of kind nature and evil affection in Han times, only - rationalism in Sui, Tang, Song and Yuan times, and all absurd conventional ethical systems in Chinese ancient monarchy, the ancient slavery morality, and modem＂ extreme left＂ thinking trend. Tracking down the historical development in humanities thoughts in China, we can expose the general principle as follows： enlightenment occurs at the extreme point of obscuration ; absurdity occurs beyong the limit of truth a little ; humanistic truth is identical, so is absurdity;lessons can be found out ~om the repeated absurdities, and truth can be concluded ~om repeated enlightenments-- which have proved to be the valuable resources＂ for us to reconstruct value and ethics systems and to urge Chinese ethnic nation to develop rapidly in today＇ s world. We sincerely appreciate Prof. Qi Zhixian＇ s great contribution to us. Due to its length, we plan to publish the article in two issues.