佛道回流,还是经学势然?——《中庸》升经再论

The Return from Buddhism and Daoism,or the Inevitable Trend of the Studies of Confucian Classics?——On the Promotion of The Doctrine of The Mean

《中庸》原为《礼记》之一篇,南宋以后成为"四书"之一。在《中庸》由"篇"升格为"书"的过程中,佛道人士早在宋代儒家之先已对《中庸》进行了广泛关注和大力提倡。据此,学界引申出一种《中庸》"回流说",即《中庸》是从佛道回流至儒家的。但"回流说"没有或不能回答这样一个问题:儒家经典众多,佛道何以单单抽取《礼记》之《中庸》加以关注与提倡呢?这个问题之所以没有得到回答,一个根本原因在于前述"回流说"忽略了《中庸》升经的经学史背景。《中庸》升经的经学史背景,是指随着《礼记》的经学地位不断提升,《中庸》的社会地位也水涨船高,正是在这样一个经学史流变的背景下,南朝的戴颙、梁武帝等佛道人士在"格义""清淡"时,或中唐的儒家士人在行文作赋时,才会把既具有崇高经学地位又具有普遍义理的《中庸》作为关注与提倡的对象,进而也才有了两宋以后的《中庸》升格为经。

The Doctrine of the Mean was originally one article of The Book of Rites,and became one of the“Four Books”after the Southern Song dynasty.In the process of promotion of The Doctrine of the Meanfrom“article” to“book,”Buddhist and Taoist scholars have paid extensive attention to and advocated The Doctrine of the Mean as early as the Neo-Confucian in the Song dynasty.This leads to the theory of Backflow,that is,The Doctrine of the Mean returned from Buddhism to Confucianism.However,the theory of Backflow does not or cannot answer such a question:with so many Confucian classics,why did Buddhists and Taoists only draw attention to and promote The Doctrine of the Meanin The Book of Rites?One of the fundamental reason why this question has not been answered is that this statement ignored the historical background of the promotion of The Doctrine of the Mean.This background is that with the promotion of The Book of Rites,the social status of The Doctrine of the Mean was promoted.Only under such background,the Buddhists and Taoists in the Southern dynasties such as Dai Yong and Emperor Wu of Liang in the geyi (analogical interpretation)and qingtan (idle talk of metaphysics),and the Confucian scholars in the mid-Tang dynasty in their prose fu,will focus on The Doctrine of the Mean,and then The Doctrine of the Mean was promoted and became the Confucian classics after the Song dynasty.