法家的发生逻辑与理解方法

On the Legalistic Generating Logic and its Controversial View

在先秦诸子中,法家的命运是最值得玩味的:虽然商鞅变法的成功与秦朝的建立已充分证明了运用法家思想治国的有效性,但后世之统治者却几乎无人愿意仿效这种成功的经验;虽然秦朝的灭亡是因为君昏臣暴、滥用刑罚,但是这笔账却全部记到了法家的头上;虽然封建统治者采用"阳儒阴法"的治国策略是众所周知的事实,而且法对维护社会秩序的实际作用要远远大于儒家提倡的德,但是人们却把中国封建社会的长期稳定与繁荣完全归功于儒家;而20世纪70年代出于某种政治目的开展的评法批儒运动,更是使法家处于极为尴尬的境地。时至今日,倡新儒家者有之,倡新道家者亦有之,法家却一直被冷落。历史的事实告诉我们:在列国竞争、强者为王的年代,法家倡导的奖励耕战、富国强兵政策无疑是极为有效的;另一方面,法家提倡以法治国,主张依据人情之真实而设立治道,"法不阿贵,绳不挠曲"、"不别亲疏,不殊贵贱,一断于法",这些也与现代社会倡导的法制精神有一致之处。当然,法家思想自有其因时代原因而造成的局限,他们所谓的法体现的是国君的意志,法对国君缺乏有效的制约作用,并由此产生了种种弊端;当大一统的帝国建立之后,法家思想作为一种统治思想没有因为失去了竞争对象而作出适当的调整,其高强度的扩张力转而成为严重伤害国内民众的暴力,等等,也是我们必须看到的。因此,应当以唯物史观的科学态度对待这一份历史遗产,认真总结其中的经验教训,以服务于现代社会。为了推动学界对法家思想的深入研究,本期编发韩东育、周炽成、宋洪兵三位先生关于法家思想研究的文章,以飨读者。关于法家思想,值得我们认真研究的问题还有很多,诸如法家思想如何促成了秦国的强大、秦朝灭亡与法家思想的真实关系、法家思想对汉朝及以后的封建社会的影响和价值、法家思想与西方法制精神的异同、法家思想的现代价值,等等。当今时代,既是和平发展的时代,也是充满竞争的时代,在这样的历史时期,重新反思法家思想的意义和价值,当会有全新的感悟。我们真诚地期待高明者的真知灼见。

Although both Confucianism and Taoist school affect the legalistic,but these influences are not in metaphysics and ethics.The generating logic of the legalism comes from the universal regularity of the Zhou-Qin's culture,and its system of expression reflects a general political appeal.The legalism,its purposeful value is no less than any kind of theory,but its instrumental value has been severely criticized unvaryingly.The question of legalism,that is,whether the primary is the monarch or law? reflects an eternal contradiction.So it's hard to be given up for its inseparable relations with the value of unity.Because of the political behavior and operating mechanism as a mean to an aim,which appears some operating characteristics frequently that were not in the same direction of ethics,even more on the contrary,and these characteristics reflect the precondition of politics,so the understanding of the legalism is supposed to follow the inherent regular pattern of politics,but not to acclaim or depreciate it by a moral standards and philosophical abstraction.