廖平的诗经天学与古今文质之辨

LIAO Ping’s Cosmological Hermeneutics on The Book of Songs and the Distinction between Ancient and Modern Literary-Material Statuses

廖平于新文化运动至“五四”时期开展的诗经学研究被他本人视为“天学”,构成其后期学说的核心内容。然而,廖平的同代和后世学人大多认为“天学”或是有违经学“家法”,或是脱离“时势”需求,或是于现实“无用”。通过回到廖平本人后期思想转变的意图和志趣,发现其对圣人哲学精神的继承,明确其响应中华文明危机的问题意识和通过“改文从质”达到“文质彬彬”的义理构想,“天学”之于新时代的真实意义方能得到揭示。

LIAO Ping invents a cosmological hermeneutic on The Book of Songs during the new culture movement to fulfill his later teaching about the study of Confucian classics. However, most of his contemporaries and later generations believe that this hermeneutic goes against the orthodoxical doctrine of classical reading, or beyond the historic demand, or away from the secular practicability. Returning to the intention and interest of LIAO Ping’s later thoughts can help to reveal his inheritance of Confucian philosophy and consciousness of the crisis of Chinese civilization. LIAO Ping’s philosophical distinction between ancient and modern literary-material statuses plays an important role to illustrate the true significance of his cosmological hermeneutic for now and the future.