《中庸》考辨

Textual Research on The Doctrine of the Mean

《中庸》历来是一篇充满争议的文献,其作者和成书问题非常复杂。由于特殊的历史形态,它不能算是一篇成于一人一时之手的文献。它是儒家学派思想累积而成的,只不过是大部分经子思之手而已。所以它只能算是一篇历经了几代人、成于一个学派的文献,且其中还包含着被秦汉人篡改的成分。正是如此,《中庸》的文本也体现出先秦文献的四个基本特性:作者的集体性;成书的历时性;文献的学派性及传播的篡改性。

The Doctrine of the Mean has always been a controversial piece of document concerning its author and compilation. Due to special historical elements, it can＇t be written by one man. It is the accumulating thoughts of Confucian, but most was sorted out by Zisi. So it only can be thought of as a work of generations, and a school of scholars, and it also contains ingredients of people from Qin and the Han dynasties. Therefore, the text also reflected four basic characteristics of the pre-Qin literature namely： multiple authorship, diachronic formation, literary factionalism and being revised during transmission.