经子关系辨正

On Relations between the Confucian Classics and Non-Confucian Schools of Thought

经与子概念的内涵与外延均处在变动之中。孔子整理、编纂后的六经与先秦诸子学皆源出"前孔子之经",即三代以来的史料性质文献。孔子经典化的六经为先秦孔门弟子经学与汉代今古文经学之文本依据和之后历代经学思想之总根源,因其上升为汉以后的文化典范,造成九流之学皆出于六经的假象。然而,如对经书与经学加以区分,考虑到经书系统并非静止凝固,往往随时代精神与社会情境的需要而动态扩展,而其中最显著者,莫过于升格子书为经书。这表明,经与传是相对之名,而经学与子学的学问性质相同。孔学与其他子学,都在对"前孔子之经"加以继承和诠释,传记、经学与九流之学在此意义上同源同质,属广义的子学范畴。透过对经子关系的分析,可以从一个侧面揭示中国思想史上种种复杂的互动关系和中国传统文化自我更新的内在机制,同时也可弥补往昔学术史多谈经史关系而少谈经子关系之不足。

The connotation and extension of the concepts of Confucian classics(经jing)and non-Confucian schools of thought(子zi)had always been changing.Both the Six Classics collated and compiled by Confucius and the study of pre-Qin non-Confucian philosophies all originated from 'pre-Confucius classics,'viz.,literature of historical material nature since the Three Dynasties.The Six Classics canonized by Confucius were both the textual foundation of the pre-Qin Confucian disciples'study of Confucian Classics and the study of old texts(古文,guwen)and new texts(今文,jinwen)of Confucian Classics in the Han dynasty,and the origin of the Confucian thoughts of later generations;In addition,the Confucian classics were made cultural paragons since the Han Dynasty:All this give people a false impression as if all other schools of thought had originated from the Six Classics.If we make a distinction between the texts of Confucian classics and study of them,we can see that the system of the classics was never static but rather dynamically changed and extended in line with the requirements of times and social environments.Among them,the most obvious is the promotion of Confucian zishu(Confucian works written by Confucian disciples)to Confucian classics.This indicates that the term classics is relative to zhuan(传,literally biography),while the studies of Confucian classics and non-Confucian schools of thought were similar in nature,both of them inherited and expounded the 'pre-Confucian classics.'In this sense,biographies,the study of Confucian classics and that of other schools of thought are the same in terms of origin and nature,all belonging to the study of schools of thought in the broad sense.From the analysis of relationship between the study of Confucian classics and that of non-Confucian thoughts,we can see,from one aspect,the complex interactions and the internal mechanism of self-renewal of traditional Chinese culture;besides,it is also an remedy for the shortcoming in the history of Chinese academics that discussed mostly the relationship between Confucian classics and history while touching little on the relationship between Confucian classics and other schools of thought.