试论儒家的“信”何以能“忠”——儒家本体与工夫互涵互释的一个案例

On How Confucian "Credit" Goes to "Loyalty"——Mutual Interpretation between Confucian Ontology and Gongfu(Time)

儒家强调"忠",要求人们能够与人忠、与己忠,但只有通过"信"才是可能的,因为尽己之性才能尽人之性、尽物之性。对别人忠,首先要有信于人,竭尽全力,信实可靠,让人放心,让自己安心。有信于己,才能见信于人,不信则不足以爱人。通达自己,则一定能够忠于天地万物。信在言与行、主与客之间发挥一种统一和联结的作用,它打通本体与工夫、消除物我,因而既成为尽忠的一项修持工夫,又是人之为人所应该守护的根本。忠信统一,合德并称,而可通达天道自然。

Confucianism emphasizes 'loyalty' and asks people to be loyal to each other and themselves,which is only,however,able to realize through 'credit',because only by owning self-credits can we be credible to people and nature.Credit is a precondition for us to be trusted so that we can make other people secure in mind and gain peace ourselves.We can only be creditable by owning credits to ourselves;otherwise we would be unable to love people.We'll be loyal to nature if we can know ourselves comprehensively.Loyalty plays a unifying and connecting role between words and deeds,subject and object,and it relates ontology to Gongfu(time) then clear up nature and human.Therefore,credit plays a supporting role to loyalty and it is a fundamental personality that we should guard.We'll know nature comprehensively if loyalty and credit are united.