从形名、声名到味名——中国古典思想“名”之演变脉络

Form-name,Sound-name and Taste-name:The Evolution of Ming (Name) in Chinese Classical Thought

先秦形名家自觉以"形"作为"名"的根据,儒道自觉超越形名,而走向"形而上"。汉儒一方面将"名"听觉化,另一方面,提出听觉性的"号",并以"声"作为"名"的根据,以"声""言"通"意""心",时代主题由"名实之辩"转换为"言意之辩"。魏晋玄学家一方面质疑"心""意"与"声""言"之间的关联,另一方面,区分"名""号"与"称""谓",由此超越了"声名",消解了"言意之辩"。以"味"辨物,以"味"作为名的根据随之自觉兴起。从"形"到"声",再到"味",构成了中国传统命名根据完整的演变历程,也反映了中国传统思想命名、分类的基本趋向。

The Xingming school of the pre-Qin period consciously used form ( xing ) as the basis of name ( ming ). Confucian and Daoist at that time cared more about “what is transcendent”( xing er shang ) than merely about form and name. In Han Dynasty, Confucianism made the name auditory, while proposed sobriquets ( hao ) and used sound as the basis of name, and expressed meaning ( yi ) and mind ( xin ) using sound ( sheng ) and speech ( yan ). These themes transformed the debate over name vs. actuality to one over the discrimination of speech vs. meaning. The Mysterious Learning ( xuan xue ) of Wei and Jin dynasties questioned the connection between mind and meaning and sound and speech, and distinguished between name and sobriquet and reference ( cheng ) and appellation ( wei ), thus surpassed the sound-name ( sheng ming ) and dispelling the discrimination of speech vs. meaning, classified and named things on the basis of taste. From form to sound and then to taste constitutes a complete evolution of Chinese traditional naming, and also reflects the basic trend of naming and classification in Chinese traditional ideas.