汉语“宪法”意义考正

Trajectory of Chinese Word Xianfa:An Etymologic Perspective

古汉语"宪法"是"宪"的一个衍生语词,二者词义有很大程度的同一性。古人训"宪"为"法",多直解其义,未能尽疏其意。他们用"宪"称"法",初为特指先王之法或旧典,意为恒常有效、世代遵从之法。后词义扩展,"宪"多泛指各种法律,成为对"法"的一种尊称。在先秦,"宪法"有两种构词:一是"宪"与"法"同义连缀,泛指国法;二是"宪法"作为一个偏正语词,"宪"是"法"的修饰词,"宪法"有"显法"或"常法"之义,但无"根本大法"或"最高法律"之义。秦汉以降,"宪法"皆属同义联合语词,泛指"国法"、"王法"、"法制"、"刑法",有时还指称一种治道与治法,但仍无"根本法"之义,仅蕴涵着人们对法的一种敬意。

The Archaic Chinese word Xianfa is derived from Xian and their meanings overlap to a large extent.The ancient Chinese regularly took Xian as Fa while read its meaning literally and incompletely.At first they called Fa as Xian to refer to laws enacted by kings in the past or codes that had perpetual force and would be complied with generation after generation.Along with extension of meaning,Xian began to be employed to mean a variety of laws while showing a respect to Fa.In Pre-Qin days Xianfa got two meanings one of which indicated national law and the other described ordinary law or applying law but neither bore the meaning of basic law or supreme law.Later on,in the Qin and Han Dynasties,Xianfa was generally used as a compound word to mean national law,law promulgated by kings,legal system,criminal law,or ruling ways or rule of law,which had got nothing to do with basic law apart from a sense of people＇s respect to the law.