诸子言意观的学派差异

Differences between Words and Meanings in the Pre-Qin Scholars' Theories

春秋战国是中国哲学的发生期,先秦诸子的探索确定了中国式思想书写的基本方向与路径。先秦诸子关于思想书写的困惑与探索,主要体现在对言意问题的探讨中。道家认为言不能尽意,主张得意忘言,他们创造性地采用了以文写意的表达方式。儒家重视言语的政教功用,主张君子慎言,而盛德大美之境,可以意会而难以言传。儒家将天道视为终极真理,为探求天道而走上了两条不同的路径,一是《周易·系辞》提出的立象尽意,以辞系象的外观之路,另一条是《孟子》提出的尽心知性以知天的内守之路。儒家和道家是先秦诸子中对高深思想和抽象理论最有探索兴趣的两派,他们在使用语词探索思想秘境的途中,虽然存在着儒家"不得不言"和道家"得意而忘言"之异,但最后都选择了超语言的方式。法家、墨家更在乎言动主君,发为刑政,他们专注于言语的现实功用,对于表达的准确性有严苛的要求,并因此而试图探索语词使用的规则、方法,不过法家的循名责实属于实用的政治技艺,墨家对名实的探究则能深入到概念研究本身。

It was from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period that Chinese philosophy emerged,and the explorations of the pre-Qin scholars helped establish the basic way of Chinese writing of thoughts.Scholars’puzzles and explorations about writing were mainly in the discussion of words and meanings.It is a Taoist idea that meaning goes beyond words,so that one should forget words once having got meanings.Taoist writing style might be described as drawing the spirit by words.Confucians attached importance to the ethical and political functions of words,and they advocated that a superior man should be cautious of his speeches,and the great virtue,as well as great beauty,could be conveyed in spirit though difficult in words.Being in two different schools of thoughts,Taoists and Confucians both had greatest interest in abstract theories in the pre-Qin period,and both finally explored in some extra-linguistic way.Confucians held that the greatness should be explained in words no matter how difficult it was,while Taoists claimed forgetting words once having got the meaning.In contrast,Mohist and Legalists believed that one’s intention could be adequately expressed,and were concerned about how to persuade a ruler to accept their proposal for governance.Both Mohist and Legalists regarded words as a tool of expression,so they paid attention to the accuracy of word-using and tried to find the rules of language.