先秦“形而上”之思探要

Exploring the Thoughts of "The Metaphysical" in the Pre-Qin Period

本文扼要而系统地考述了老子、孔子、墨子、公孙龙关于人生形而上之域的研寻,进而对以上诸家问津形而上境地的途径、契机作了比勘与评说。文中指出:动物永远委身于当下的经验世界,唯人能超越当下而为其探究并营构形而上之域;中国形而上致思的自觉发生在春秋战国之际,正是这一时期的形而上之思孕育了此后两千多年中一脉相贯的民族魂守。

This paper interprets briefly and systematically how Lao Tzu,Confucius,Mo Tzu,Gong Sun-long searched for the metaphysical field of life,makes a comparison of the ways and the points of these searches,and then comments on them.It is pointed out that animals always stay in the present empirical world,and only human beings can transcend the present,probe into the metaphysical world and create it for themselves.At last,the author asserts that the Chinese consciousness of the metaphysical happened in both the Spring and the Autumn and Warring States Periods,and that it was the metaphysical thoughts in this period that bred the Chinese national spirit thence lasting more than two thousands years.