从恻隐心到是非心:王阳明良知说对儒家性善论的凝练与发展

From Compassion to Sense of Right and Wrong:Wang Yangming's Contribution to Confucian Notion of Goodness in Human Nature

孟子奠定了儒家性善论的传统,其所论性善的根据在于人皆有四端之心,其中恻隐之心尤为根本。朱子则以"性即理"来阐明性善的根据,认为"四端"是性体之发用,这就颠倒了孟子"以心(情)善言性善"的理路,同时他亦认为恻隐之心是四端之根本。王阳明以良知概念阐明人性善,良知绾合了孟子的四端,但阳明特别强调良知只是一个是非之心,是非只是一个好恶,这就使"四端"的中心由恻隐转移到了羞恶心和是非心。现代进化论的研究表明,以羞恶为内核的是非心才是人类特有的良心,这一看法也为儒家性善说提供了一定的科学依据。

Mencius established the notion that human nature is good because all human beings have the Four Beginnings of goodness in heart-mind(siduanzhixin, 四端之心) especially have compassion. Zhu Xi exlpained this notion via a theory that human nature is come from Heavenly Principle, which is absolutely pure good. Zhu Xi's theory is different from mencius in that he belittled the importance of the four beginnings,although he thought that compassion was also fundamental. Wang Yangming expounded this notion base on that all human beings have conscience. He thought that conscience is a sense of right and wrong and then the sense is just like and dislike. As a result, he shifted the fundamental importance for this notion from compassion to the sense of shame and dislike,which can be supported in a sense by modern theory of evolution.