“无极而太极”:张载思想新解——有限效果、无限追求以及“天理与人智”的关系之辨

A New Explanation to Zhang Zai's Thought of Tai Chi of Limitless——Relation between Finite Effectiveness,Infinite Pursuit,Justice and Human Intellect

通过考察张载的学术思想可以发现,张子学在宇宙论与本体论两方面都有所追求,但在结论上却偏向后者,最终形成了颇具特色而又略显含混的"神化"的"气本体论"思想。与此相对应,论题用"无极而太极"的命题进行转述,突出张载延伸出认识论上的"有限观",并且分界天、地、人的界限,而"天道"永远无极,圣人见识有其"太极",但"无极"与"太极"之间仍存有"余地"。同时,张子明确界定这个"余地",以之作为儒门圣道领域,成为圣人学者的活动空间;进而要求后学者尽性立心,明诚足愿,修"礼法"的伦理实体来完善"仁本体"的建构。通过"天理与人智"关系对"天理与人欲"关系的超越,由是规范了学者的具体行为,明确了学者的职责和使命。以上种种立意端正、垂范深远,正是张载哲学思想的价值所在。

Through the observation of Zhang Zai＇s academic thought, it is found that Zhang Zai investigated both cosmology and ontology, but he had his conclusions biased towards the latter, so much so that he finally developed the distinctive yet ambiguous and deified thought of Ontology of Qi. Corresponding to this, his topic was paraphrased by the proposition of Tai Chi of Limitless, by highlighting his finite epistemology on episte- mology, and the boundaries between the Heaven, the Earth and man. According to him, the natural law is al- ways limitless, also called Wu Ji in Chinese, the saints have their Great Ultimate, Tai Ji in Chinese, however, there was a margin between Wu Ji and Tai Ji. At the same time, he clearly defined the margin and took it as the holy domain of Confucians, where the saints and scholars were very active. He further required that his followers should be strongly determined and devoted, sincerely believe in the doctrine so as to realize their wishes and to exercise the entity of ethic of rite and law to perfect the construction of humanitarian-oriented ontol- ogy. By making the relationship between Justice and Human Intellect transcend that between Justice and Hu- man Desire, he standardized the scholars＇ concrete behaviors and clarified their duties and responsibilities. All those above-mentioned determination and standardization have set up a far-reaching example for the scholars and are considered as the essential value of Zhang Zai＇s philosophical thought.