“物”与“贵贱”之间——论庄子之“物无贵贱”

Between “ Things” and “High and Low”——A Study on Zhuangzi's Thoughts about “There are no distinctions of high and low”

庄子以"道生万物"为逻辑起点,将"物"定义为由"道"而生的万物,万物之于"道"均为统一的"存在"或曰"有",故万物等齐,无所谓贵贱。物之贵贱不过是作为万物之一的人凭借其自主能动性垄断评判资格,并依据一定衡量标准对分以高下的对立概念附着其身的万物做出的主观判断。而在庄子看来,这种贵贱之判既不合理,也不可能。庄子之"物无贵贱"思想使平等关系在"物"的最大范围内得以确立,破除人类中心格局之余,为个人摆脱"非此即彼"的思维困境提供了一种相对主义视角;但相对主义的认识方式却使其陷入了怀疑主义,并最终走向了形而上学。

Based on the thought of 'Dao is the origin of Universe', Zhuangzi defined 'Things' as the whole material and immaterial ones originated from Dao. All things are 'Being'(or 'You' in Chinese)in the Zhuangzi thought, so there are no distinctions of 'High' and 'Low' among them. 'High' and 'Low' are subjective judgments made by humans. It is neither reasonable nor possible in Zhuangzi’s thought. The thought of 'There are no distinctions of high and low' builds a connection of equality among all the ranges of 'Things', that departs form Anthropocentrism and provides a perspective of Relativism when people have to choose between contrary judgments. But Relativism also traps the thought into Skepticism and eventually leads to Metaphysics.