《论语》“侍坐”章曾点之志辨诠

A Debate and Annotation on the Understanding of Zengdian’s Aspiration in the Chapter of “Shizuo” in The Analects

《论语》“侍坐”章所载曾点之志,传统的解读是曾点希冀于暮春时节去浴水郊游,并因其对时势之独到认识而为孔子所赞赏。自东汉以来,该说因其不宜浴水之时令而备受质疑,学者进而提出修禊祓除说和雩祭求雨说。当代学者多认同春末郊游说,但对于诸般质疑却未能作出有效之回应。事实上,历代学者均忽视了古今气候之差异,故而以今况古,失其正宗。春秋战国时期处于仰韶文化后中国历史上的第二个温暖期,当时山东地带属于亚热带气候,于春夏之交浴水郊游自不成问题。而“服”应训为“事”,“春服”意为春天的诸般事务。该句完整译为：春末时节,春天的事务都已经完成了,我愿带着五六个成人、七八个小孩,来到沂水上洗澡,再去舞雩台下吹风纳凉,然后唱着歌回家。曾点洒落疏狂之心志,引发了孔子的伤时之叹。

The understanding of Zengdian＇ s aspiration recorded in The Analects was that Zengdian hoped to swim in the river of Yishui at the end of the spring. Zengdian＇ s aspiration was appreciated by Confucius. But this has been doubted about ever since the Han dynasty because some people thought it was inappropriate to swim at that time, so they offer two other proposals as exorcising and begging for rain. Nowadays most scholars agreed with the first explanation, but they didn＇t reply other two suspicions. In my idea, most scholars ignored the differences of climate between ancient and modern China. Exactly the period of Chunqiu and Zhanguo was the second warm phase after the Yangshao culture of 6000 - 7000 years ago, and Shandong area belonged to subtropical climate at that time, so it was suitable to swim at the end of spring and the beginning of summer. Further more, the word Fu （ 服 ） should be explained as Shi （ 事 ） ,Chun fu（春服） means the affairs that should be accomplished in the spring. The whole sentence should be translated as： when all the affairs was finished at the end of spring, i wanted to swim in the river of Yishui with four or five adults and about six or sever children, and then blowing on the platform of Wuyu, at last we would sing and take a walk toward home. Confucius was irritated by Zengdian＇ s free and easy aspiration, so he appreciated it and sighed.