亲亲尊尊之间的断崖——由韦刘庙议重估西汉经学政制

The Precipice between Being Close to One's Kinsfolk and Respecting the Respected: A Revaluation of the Han System by the Controversy between Wei Xuancheng and Liu Xin on the Confucian Ritual of the Emperor's Ancestral Temple

汉代制度对汉以后两千年的中国历史有着深远的影响。对于汉制的研究,以往学者多注目于法律的儒家化,而忽视了西汉儒者以礼更法的努力。今古文礼学的实质性区别不在经书本身,也不是儒生争名夺利,而是以何种天子礼奠定国家之政体。其要即在于天子是否超绝于万民之上。由韦玄成与刘歆庙议可见,西汉今文儒生仅受士礼熏陶,习于推士礼以致于天子。但是在今文儒生真正构建经国大典时,只能局促于亲亲之爱,无法跨过亲亲与尊尊之间的断崖,义而能断,构建足以为经国大典之天子礼。于是古文经学乘隙而起,由攻驳今文经学之天子礼入手,提出并逐步完善自身的天子礼。这实质上是向秦制靠拢的过程,背弃了汉儒过秦的初衷。儒学究竟应如何构建经国大典,甚至儒学是否有能力建构经国大典,成为千年梦魇。

The Han system deeply influenced Chinese history for two thousand years.In the former studies of the Han system,scholars always focused on the Confucianization of law,yet neglected the efforts of replacing rites with law by the Western-Han Confucians.The essential distinction between the Classical Text Confucianism and the New Text Confucianism on ritual studies lay neither in the Confucian classics,nor in fame and wealth,but in establishing the polity with what kind of imperial rite.The key point was that the emperor transcended the people.From the controversy between Wei Xuancheng and Liu Xin on the ritual of the emperor’s ancestral temple,it can be seen that the Western-Han Confucians of the New Texts School only accepted influence of The Book of Rites,and were accustomed to apply such rites even to the emperor.Yet when setting about constructing the grand ceremony for administrating the country,they were just cramped within the affection among relatives,and could not stride over the precipice between being close to one’s kinsfolk and respecting the respected,and thus could not construct eligible rites for the emperor,which was righteous as well as decisive.Then the School of Classical Texts seized the chance.They began with refuting rites of the emperor designed by the New Text School,and gradually improved rites by their own.In essence,it was a process approaching the Qin system,and abandoning the Han Confucian’s original intention of reflecting faults of the Qin Dynasty.How could Confucianism construct,or even whether Confucianism had the ability to construct the grand ceremony for administrating the country,became a nightmare.