“为”字本义考——《老子新探》增订本(未刊稿)第三章节录

A Study of the Literal Sense of "为"

迄今为止,老子提出的"道常无为而无不为"仍然是一个没有猜透的谜。为揭开这一千古之谜的谜底,论文对"为"字的本义(即殷商甲骨卜辞中"为"字的初文初义)做了考释。首先分析《说文解字》对"为"字的说解;随后重点考析《墨经》中针对"为"字所作的释义,并用古代文献(主要是上古典籍、其中包括近年出版问世的战国楚竹书)以及西周金文中的有关材料予以论证;最后追溯到殷商甲骨卜辞中的"为"字初文,分析字形,据形索义,进而联系卜辞文例考察其词义和语用,并作出结论。结论认为:就词性而言,甲骨卜辞中的"为"字初文是一个心理动词;就词义而言,它不是表示"做"或"作为"、"行为",而是表示作为行为主体的人将要做某件事或将要从事某一活动的意向,简言之,就是"有某种意向"。

The doctrine that ＂nothing is often done while everything is done＂ proposed by Lao Zi has remained an unsolved riddle up till now. To solve the age-old puzzle, this paper has made a textual study and explanation of the literal sense of the character ＂为＂ as follows ： an analysis is first made of the annotations of ＂为＂ in Interpretations of Chinese Characters and is followed by an survey of its interpretations in The Book ofMo Zi as well as an argumentation via ancient documents and relevant data in Chinese bronze inscriptions of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Finally, a conclusion is reached that ＂为＂ was orignially a psychological verb in terms of its part of speech; while it refers semantically to the intention of doing something or being engaged in an activity on the part of the subject. In short, the character ＂为＂ means having ＂some intention＂.