水:中国法思想的本喻

Water: The Metaphor of Chinese Legal Thought

中国法思想的类型在本源上就不同于西方。早期的中国哲人对法的思考并不借助于概念和逻辑,而是来自于对水这种物质的观审、想象和沉思,由水所提供的意象成为中国法思想的一个原型。从治水的经验中提取出对治人一样有用的"准绳"概念,从"静止的水"的观省中建构了法的模型,从"源头之水"、"水舟关系"建立起中国传统政治法律关系原型。对于中国传统法思想而言,"水"不是说明"法"的一个文学意义的比喻,而是对法进行概念认知过程中的一个"本喻",是概念体系的基础。

The origin of Chinese legal thought is not the same and logic, the early Chinese thinkers achieved understanding of and contemplating ＂water＂. It was water that created the thought. As the base of concept system, ＂water＂ was not a of law. as the west one. Without concept law through observing, imagining primitive image of Chinese legal literary analogy, but a metaphor There is a close relationship between ＂to rule＂ pursued by Chinese traditional political and le- gal thought and ＂to control water by Great Yu＂. To bring water under control was also a trial to provide regulations for human behaviors. Moreover, the significance of criterion to rule people is the same as it to rule water. Chinese ancestors also realized that water itself can be the image of criterion through observing and imagining ＂still water＂. Therefore there is a kind of relationship structure between water and criterion which is an important concept in Chinese culture. Through such imaginary and poetry observation of water, Chinese ancestors have established a special structure between water and law. Chinese philosophers also established the primitive model of Chinese political and legal rela- tionship directly or indirectly through contemplating the characteristics and attributes of water. The analogy of ＂water and boat＂, that is, water can bear boat, and can also swallow it up, was the earliest model of ruler and his people in Chinese political and legal thought. It admonishes the ruler and his people to confront with such relationship of mutual dependence, the ruler should not disregard the appetites of his people, and the people should also comply with the rule of wise em- peror. To pay attention to such relationship is an important mark of the wisdom of the ruler. The concrete imago of water provided model for the establishment of the concept of law in ancient China, and was internalized in the thought and conceptual system of law in China. Such metaphor is one of the orientations of conceptual schemes in the eyes of philosophers.