名分·秩序·和谐——先秦儒家名分思想的一种解读方式

Social Status,Order and Harmony:An Interpretation on Status,Title and Role as Understood in the Pre-Qin Confucianism

在先秦典籍中,"名分"、"名"、"分"是三个具有关联性与差异性的范畴,"名"与"分"是解读先秦儒家名分思想的两个基本维度,基于以等级分殊为内涵的秩序建构这一价值目标,先秦儒家以"名"作为秩序构建的原点,以"分"作为秩序认同达成的一种价值路径。所谓先秦儒家名分思想,实乃以一种整体性的视角把握"名"与"分"。基于这一视角,便可以体察到涵蕴于"名分"的一条价值进路:由分殊而和谐。而促成这两种目标之间渐进转换的中介环节是:以"二分性"为特点的"名"之双方皆能各谨其"分"。

In the pre-Qin scriptures,such terms as mingfen (a person's social status),ming (title) and fen (social role) are interrelated,but put into three different categories. Ming and fen offer us two basic approaches to the understanding of the pre-Qin Confucian theory of mingfen. Being the ultimate goal in social value,the establishment of social order,with social stratification as its core,takes ming as its starting point,and fen as a way to social order. What the pre-Qin Confucian theory of mingfen concerns about is,indeed,a holistic comprehension of ming and fen. Only in this perspective can mingfen be held as a value orientation ——a peaceful development from stratification to harmony,which is to be realized when title holders (ming) may perfectly perform their social roles (fen).