苏轼、苏辙的“性命之学”

Su-Shi and Su-Che's Theory of Human Nature

先秦至汉唐的儒学以论证和实现社会政治制度为主,对于道德性命讲得不多。北宋初期的儒学复兴,主要集中于政治理想层面,也并没有将道德性命之学当做最重要的问题加以研讨。这个问题最初由王安石开启,后来由二程等理学家进行开拓与发挥,使之成为理论焦点。古文运动中的欧阳修一派对于性命之学采取了回避或反对的态度,苏轼、苏辙的观点在这一派中比较有代表性。他们认为,孔子罕言性命,性命之学皆后起,不是圣人的遗旨。性命不可见、不易讲,也无益于人事,因此主张不谈性命。但为了反对世人谈性命的风气,他们对这个问题还是多有论述,这就是二苏所谓的"性命之学",其实质是一种反对侈言性命的思想。

The traditional Confucianism follows with the interest in demonstrating and achieving sociopolitical system,and does not talk much about human nature.The Confucian revival in the early Northern Song Dynasty focused on the political ideal,and did not take the nature as the most important issue to discuss.The issue of human nature was first opened by Wang An Shi,later developed by Cheng Hao,Cheng Yi,and other scholars.Su Shi and Su Che took an evasive attitude toward human nature,and they believed that Confucius seldom talked about human nature,which was not his legacy. For them,human nature was not visible,and difficult to talk about,and thus it was not worth talking about.But in order to express their view,they had to discuss this issue,and this was their so-called ＂theory of human nature＂,actually a kind of view against glibly talking about human nature.