儒学的宗教人文化与气化

Religious Humanism and Materialism of Confucianism

当代新儒家唐君毅、牟宗三与徐复观对于儒家与宗教的关系有着不同的理解。徐复观主张儒学自先秦之后只有人文内容,因而否定宗教的神意位格性与法则超越性;唐、牟两位之"即人文即道德"与"即人文即宗教"的观点,则是一方面肯定伦理生活中人文设教的重要,另一方面又站在"即内在即超越"的立场而有别于位格神意的宗教界定。可以说,徐复观是内在主义地去除宗教,唐、牟两位则是内在超越地护持宗教。除了以人文审视儒家与宗教的关系角度之外,传统儒家对于宗教还有另一种观点,此与祭祀对象的存有性格有关。自汉代以后,这类对象的"气化"性格逐渐跃上宗教舞台,如何面对甚至对治这种性格,乃成为儒者宗教论述的工作之一。"人文化"与"气化"是儒教的两条重要线索,由气化来"拯救鬼神"的论述尤其能够让当代新儒家的人文宗教拼图更为完整。

Tang Junyi(1909-1978),Mou Zongsan(1909-1995) and Xu Fuguan(1904-1982),three representative figures of contemporary Neo-Confucianism,share different views on the relationship between Confucianism and religion.Xu insists that ever since the pre-Qin period,Confucianism’s emphasis is always on immanent humanism and refutes religious deity or transcendence.Tang and Mou,on the contrary,reiterate the importance of 'religious humanism' in ethical life;but at the same time they also try to differ Confucianism from religion—— particularly the 'personal god' concept of religion—— from the standpoint of 'immanent transcendence'.Overall speaking,Xu’s attempt is to eliminate religion by focusing on one’s 'immanence',while Tang and Mou uphold religion by suggesting the concept of 'immanent transcendence'.Apart from taking a humanistic approach to study Confucianism and religion,there is in fact another approach,namely 'religious materialism'(qihua).'Religious materialism' is not only prominent in traditional Confucianism,but also closely related to the existential characteristics of object of religious/ancestral offering in traditional Chinese society.Since the Han dynasty,the 'religious materialisation' of objects of offering has become increasingly dominant in popular religion.As such,how to deal with this very dominant nature has become one of the key concerns for Confucians in religious narratives.In sum,both 'religious humanism' and 'religious materialism' are two important clues that must be taken into account,in order to give a full picture of the religious dimension of Confucianism.