先秦有法家吗?——兼论“法家”的概念及儒法关系

On Whether There Was Legalism in Pre-Qin Times——A Discussion of the Concept of Legalism and the Relationship between Confucianism and Legalism

胡适认为先秦无法家,但一般人不同意他的看法。从语言与历史的角度看,不能认为他的说法是没有根据的。先秦"法家"之内容太复杂。"法家集大成者"韩非子被司马迁归本黄老,被刘向看作名儒。"儒法相对"晚出,儒法关系乃历史构造而成。儒法对垒的模式,是20世纪的产物。"新法家"的概念早于"新儒家"的概念,而新儒家对法家也有所肯定。从新法家的出现到20世纪70年代的评法批儒运动的过程是法家地位不断提升的过程。扬法抑儒的倾向与现代的富强追求密切相关。

Hu Shi holds that there was no Legalism in pre-Qin times;most scholars do not agree with him.From a linguistic and historical point of view,we cannot say that Hu's argument is unfounded insofar as the content of pre-Qin'Legalism'is too complicated:Han Feizi,'the master of Legalist School,'was once classified as a member of the Huang-Lao school by Sima Qian and as a Confucian by Liu Xiang刘向.In fact,the antinomy between Confucianism and Legalism appeared relatively late,and the relationship between the two schools is the historical result of this.Taking Confucianism and Legalism as counterparts in confrontation with one another is a 20th century development.The concept of'Neo-Legalism'preceded that of'NeoConfucianism,'and Neo-Confucians often approved of certain Legalist ideas.The prestige of Legalism continually rose from the emergence of Neo-Legalism in the 1930s through the movement focused on commenting upon Legalism and criticizing Confucianism in the 1970s.The relative rise of Legalism and decline of Confucianism is closely related to the pursuit of prosperity in modern China.