《周易》的意象思维与历史解喻

The Imagery-Thinking of ZHOUYI and Its Allegorical Interpretation of History

《周易》是我们古代先民通过"仰观俯察",把对自然与社会的认识,经过思考和概括,以独特形式表达出来的典籍。《周易》在传统文化的典籍中有自己的特点,特别是这部典籍体现出思维的价值。这部著作以动态的思维,表达出的"自强不息"的理念,辩证的通变思维、整体系统思维以及圆融和谐的思维等,这些对中华民族精神的形成和发展,产生不可低估的作用,对于认识自然和社会历史具有重要的意义。《周易》的意象思维是具有民族文化特征的思维,它以其特有形式,解喻历史,把"象"与"意"融合为一个整体,寄寓对历史盛衰变动与前途的理解;并且对历史过程中不同社会特点,作出了概括。意象思维是具象思维与抽象思维的结合。以民族文化有具象思维而否定我们民族具有抽象思维能力,是没有根据的。应当认识中国与西方的思维方式上的差异与相通,这对于认识古代中国历史思维的特点,很重要。

ZHOUYI, or the Book of Change, has the characteristics of its own in the classical works of traditional culture, which demonstrates the value of thinking in particular. This book shows dynamic thinking, the expression of ＂Self-improvement＂ concept, ＂Tongbian＂ dialectical thinking, systematic thinking, as well as the overall harmony and harmonious way of thinking, which are indispensable to the making and development of Chinese national spirit. It is of great significance to understand and use those ideas in conducting the natural and social history. The imagery-thinking is the typical thinking integrating the image with the idea as a whole, which implies the vicissitudes of history and changes for understanding the future, and shows different social characteristics in the course of history as well. Imagery-thinking is a combination of a concrete thinking in term of images and a general thinking in term of abstract thinking. It is wrong to negative and underestimate the Chinese capacity of abstract thinking, although the capacity of concrete image thinking had been recognized. We should have a clear idea of the different characteristics between China and Western countries as the way of thinking is concerned.