诗·礼·乐:论儒家理想人格的辩证生成

Poetry,Etiquette and Music: On the Dialectical Generation of Confucian Ideal Personality

"兴于诗,立于礼,成于乐"是儒家所论成人之道。"诗"基于情感的自然天性,在情感交流、人心感化的过程中升腾出向善恶恶、亲亲尊尊之情。然而从诗之本身来看,其所抒发之情有着原初性和质朴性的特点,是直觉的、感性的、具体的、经验的,它在缺乏规范制约和理性引导的情况下,也不免会带有冲动性和任意性。即使它在一定程度上与西周宗法伦理社会背景相吻合,但依然缺乏强大的道德约束力,无法成为系统、规范、稳定的道德品格,只是道德意识的萌发。因此,由诗生发出来的情感,应该注入理性因素,并由礼来加以约束和规范,才能使之成为一种合理的情感表达和具有积极意义的道德情感。礼虽因情而生,却因为对"情"的文饰而成为绝对的规范,而具有了强制性的特点。由于守礼者因异于礼而感受到自我本性的限制与压抑,故需要一种与之相补充且可以调和礼之强制性的感化人心的力量,这便是"乐"。"乐"诉诸情感,遵循美的规律,承载美的内容,将纯真情感、道德精神和审美愉悦融为一体,通过"乐"的形式实现对本真世界、道德境界和审美境界的整体提升,从而达到真、善、美和谐统一的精神境界。儒家通过诗、礼、乐三种不同但又互相融合的方式来教化、塑造理想人格。经由"诗"之人性情感的启发、"礼"之伦理理性的规束、"乐"之仁德情境的养成,从对人性中自然情感的抒发、节制到道德情感的自由生成,儒家理想人格经历了否定之否定的辩证实现过程。

The Analects of Confucius recorded that the perfect personality was made by the education of poetry, etiquette and music. It is the Confucian theory of being human. The poetic moralization bases itself on the nature of emotion, and in the process of emotional communication, arises the idea about the right or wrong, and conscience as well. However, the feeling of poem is pristine and plain, lack of specification and rational guidance, even in certain contexts it is in correspondence with the patriarchal ethics in the way of the Western Zhou Dynasty. The feeling of poem should be infused with rational factors and guided by etiquette, so that it turns into a kind of rational and positive expression of emotion. The etiquette, which has the characteristics of regulation, needs music to reconcile it into a moving and educational force. The music expresses emotion, follows the law of beauty, and caiTies out the content of beauty. It achieves a unity of pure emotion, morality and aesthetic pleasure, and therefore arrives at the spiritual realm where truth, goodness and beauty are in harmony with each other. The Confucian educate and shape the ideal personality following the way of combining the poetry, etiquette and music, i. e. , poetry shedding light on the human emotion, etiquette guiding it with morals, and music constructing the moral realm. The shaping of Confucian ideal personality experiences a process of dialectics