以“水喻”之解读看儒家性善论的多种面向

The Changing Metaphor of Water and Various Dimensions in Confucian Theory of Original Goodness on Human Nature

传统经典常以我们生活环境中的事物做比喻来阐发思想,孟子用"水之就下"来比喻人性之善就是一个典型的例子。孟子"水喻"并不完美,在宋代理学对诸如天地之性与气质之性做具体区分后,经过程颢、朱熹以及胡宏的多次修正,"水喻"的喻体有一个从"水之就下",到"水之清浊",再到"清水盐水"的变化。这一过程正是宋代理学从自身的学说出发,通过微调"水喻"的喻体,进而对孟子性善论进行补充和修正的过程。在这一系列植根于经典的不断创新中,我们可以发现儒家性善论可以有诸多不同的发展向度,而"水喻"的变迁正是儒学在融合与创新中不断丰富自身内涵的一个缩影。

There were many metaphors related to water in Chinese Classics, this paper will focus on a very specific and classical metaphor of water which connected water to the human nature, and discuss its prominent and subtle changes with different thinkers＇ revisions and refinements. The metaphor was first sparked by the debate between Mengzi and Gaozi, while their metaphors were far from satisfactory. Confucian scholar had noticed the possible danger of Mengzi＇s usage of water metaphor. Instead of abandoning the flawed metaphor, they chose to refine and re-illustrate it since the metaphor of water itself had already been considered as a part of Confucian Classics at Song Dynasty. Cheng Hao revolutionarily changed the metaphor＇s vehicle from ＂water flows downward＂ to pure water and he also used ＂water carries silt＂ to explain why the common people will do some bad deeds. Zhu Xi and Hu Hong＇s further development were also based on Cheng Hao＇s paradigm and both of them enriched the meanings of the metaphor in different ways. In conclusion, the metaphor of water and its connection with human nature has gone through several major changes in the history of Chinese thoughts. If we talk about the metaphor of water nowadays, we have to pay attention to its illocutionary power which consisted not only metaphor itself but also the whole knowledge accumulation with the time elapsing.