老子《道德经》中“礼”之探微——兼及早期周孔之礼比较

"Rites" in Tao Te Ching by Laozi

老子说礼是"忠信之薄而乱之首",多数学者认为这是老子针对孔子"克己复礼"的主张而提出的反对意见。随着对老子研究的深入以及地下出土文献的开掘,传世文献中的一些记载也有可供商榷之处。合理地界定老子之"礼"、周公之"礼"和孔子之"礼"三者各自所指范畴,不难得出结论:老子的思想是针对周公之"礼"提出的。老子和孔子对"礼"范畴的界定并非指向同一层面,但内在精神具有一致性;二者都对周礼进行了批判性改造。

Laozi said that rites were ＂the head of a Most scholars take it to be a purposeful opinion offered by riot, which slight faithfulness and sincerity＂ Laozi in opposition to the proposition of ＂exer- cising self-restraint and return to rites＂ by Confucius. With the deepening of the research on Laozi and the excavation of the underground unearthed documents, some records from ancient documents become open to discussion. By reasonably defining the 3 denotative categories of Laozi ＇s ＂rites＂, Duke of Zhou＇s ＂rites＂ and the ＂rites＂ of confucius,the following conclusion can be readily made：Laozi expressed his thought, aiming at Duke of Zhou＇s ＂rites＂. And Laozi and Confucius did not denote the same level in their defini- tions of ＂rites＂ categories, still they were in agreement in their inner spirit and they both critically re- formed Zhou rites.