论“乐”

On Yue

乐在中国古代思想文化中具有突出的地位,古人总是把它视为教化与政治之源,这在世界历史中是极为罕见的。乐在古代中国位于六艺之列,但并非"术"。乐非人为,乃天授,古人从一开始就是从宇宙论和存在论的层面来理解乐的性质的。作为天道之表现的乐,虽然出于圣人之手,但圣人只是天道的代理人,真正的作者是天而不是人。中国古代思想从文明教化和理想政治的目的理解乐的作用,乐作为一种政治教化的体制,它的规范应该具有绝对普遍性,这种规范性乃人类伦理生活的基本原理与范式,它绝不是主观任意的,具有先天的绝对性。因此,乐有客观真理的根据。中国人并不因此否认乐的审美意义与娱乐功能,但无论如何,乐不是现代意义上的单纯艺术,而是人之超越性的根本体现。

The yue（ music） occupies a central position and receives wide attention. The ancient Chinese understood its cosmological and metaphysical significance and regarded it as an indispensible means for social education and ideal politics. For this reason,its meaning is not the same as art in modern sense. The ancient Chinese did not ignore the aesthetic and entertaining functions of yue,but anyway yue was for them an important means of communication between tian（ heaven） and human beings,as well as the infinite and the finite. The yue embodies the transcendence of human beings.