“神明”臆解——郭店楚简《太一生水》研究之二

Interpretation of “Shenming”——The Second Study on Guodian Chu Slips Tai Yi Sheng Shui

如何理解郭店楚简《太一生水》中的"神明"一词,研究者众说纷纭、莫衷一是。其实,"神明"和《太一生水》中的天地、阴阳、四时(春秋—冬夏)、沧热、湿燥一样,都是意义相对相反而又相辅相成的一组概念,指的都是两种客观存在。《太一生水》所说的天地、神明、阴阳、四时、沧热、湿燥,实即《老子》第四十二章"道生一,一生二,二生三,三生万物"之"二"。《老子》所云"二"之确诂,当为一分为二之"二",即处于对立统一之中的"二"(约略近于"矛盾"一词)。在古代汉语语汇中,"神明"此意最接近于"幽明"或"晦明",而"鬼神"亦与之相仿佛("鬼神"的这一义项不大为人所注意)。非常遗憾的是,"神明"的这一义项不见于今人所编的辞书,实属漏收。希望在未来修订辞书时,能增加"神明"的这一义项。

The word'shenming'in the Guodian Chu Slips Tai Yi Sheng Shui,like heaven and earth,yin and yang,four seasons,cold and hot,wet and dry, is a set of concepts that are opposite and complementary to each other. It refers to the two kinds of objective existence. They are the'Two'of Chapter 42 in Laozi which says'One begets Two,Two beget Three,Three beget creation'. 'Two' of Chapter 42 in Laozi is in the unity of opposites,roughly close to the word'contradiction'. In the ancient Chinese language vocabulary,'shenming'on the level of this meaning is the most close to 'youming' or 'huiming'. And 'Spirit' has the same meaning, but not many people notice it.The present dictionaries miss this meaning of 'shenming', it is very regretful. I hope that the revised dictionaries could increase the meanings of'shenming'in the future.