宋代思想史的再思考

Reflecting Again on the History of Song Thought

首先我力图澄清我对多个术语的基本观点,尤其是对"理学"、"道学"、"新儒学"以及"NeoC onfucianism"的观点。这些概念的用法需要得到进一步的梳理。我并不试图简单地用一个术语代替另一个,而是希望用更加细致具体的方式看待儒学内部的不同圈子、团体或谱系等等,并以此来增强我们研究和论著中的清晰程度。其次,我将给予朱熹同时代儒者进一步的关注,并且以严肃的态度将他们视为儒家思想家;我确信,更好地了解朱熹同时代的儒者将有助于增强我们对朱熹作为哲学家的认识,并进一步了解他所处的时代以及他所扮演的角色。第三,我非常欣喜地看到中国学术界从上世纪九十年代初以来,对诸如张九成、胡宏、张栻、吕祖谦、陈亮和陆九渊等思想家展现出越来越多的兴趣并取得了许多让人印象深刻的成果。我个人研究朱熹同时代儒者的观点和方法与不少学者(尤其是中国学者)的工作成果之间,其实存在着重要的相似一致与交汇合流。最后,我想借用马恺之的最新成果来强调我的观点:统治者们更倾向于接受朱熹哲学,这在很大程度上是因为朱熹体系下的皇帝有着独特的伦理、哲学和政治优势。与之相反,吕祖谦认为这种伦理价值的过于集中是不恰当的,因为统治机构需要不断改进他们的治理并为皇帝的权力设置约束。吕祖谦在儒者中较早看到仅仅依赖皇帝的自我修养和德性的危险,因此他可谓是黄宗羲及其《明夷待访录》这类思想的先声。如果吕祖谦的思想能像朱熹那样影响到整个中国,那么中国的政治、文化、历史可能会有完全不同的发展路向。

First,I will attempt to clarify my concerns about the use of various terms,particularly lixue,daoxue,xinruxue,and Neo-Confucianism. I am not trying to simply replace one term with another one,but rather to enhance the clarity of our research and publications by being more careful and specific about the different circles,groups or lineages,etc., of Confucians. Second, I will continue to make the case for greater attention to Zhu Xi’s contemporaries and for taking them seriously as Confucian thinkers. I am convinced that a better understanding of Zhu Xi’s contemporaries will also enhance our understanding of Zhu Xi as a philosopher and his personal role in his era.Third,based on my chapter for Huang Yong’s forthcoming volume on Zhu Xi’s philosophy,I will briefly highlight significant parallels and confluence of my approach to Zhu’s contemporaries and the work of many scholars( especially in China) since around 1990. I am greatly encouraged by the increasing trend since around 1990 to explore the thought of Zhu Xi’s contemporary Confucian thinkers,such as Zhang Jiucheng,Hu Hong,Zhang Shi,Lü Zuqian,Chen Liang,and Lu Jiuyuan,with enhanced research into their writings and activities. After centuries of following Zhu Xi’sjudgments about his contemporaries,research in recent decades increasingly reveals more independence from Zhu Xi’s negative condemnations and caricatures of his contemporaries;moreover,most research in recent years takes such thinkers seriously in their own right. Instead of earlier tendencies to set such contemporaries as antagonists with polar opposite views from Zhu Xi,most recent scholarship is also able to see significant areas of agreement and shared purpose with Zhu Xi. Furthermore,recent scholarship has become increasingly willing to highlight the influence of such contemporaries on Zhu Xi’s thinking,as well as on later generation. There is even enhanced awareness that some of the ideas of Zhu’s contemporaries are probably more useful — than Zhu Xi’s own ideas — for our thinking about issues and problems in our own day.Finally,to provide a more specific example of what I regard as progress made in scholarship on Song Confucianism in recent decades,I will briefly share highlights of research publications by Kai Marchal. His English essay and German book on Lü Zuqian provide insightful accounts of Lü Zuqian’s use of historical and institutional history,along with the Lü family’s actual experiences serving in high offices of the Song dynasty,to make a practical political philosophy. One of his findings is that emperors were far more receptive to Zhu Xi’s philosophy due largely to the imperial advantage to having the ethical,philosophical and governmental focus on the personal self-cultivation of the emperor himself. In contrast,Lü Zuqian saw that such concentration on ethical self-cultivation was inadequate because there was also a need for institutions to improve governance and provide a check on imperial power. Emperors surely could easily perceive the personal disadvantage or danger of Lü Zuqian’s reform agenda. At least,Lü Zuqian was among the early Confucians who saw the limitations of reliance upon the emperor’s self-cultivation and virtue alone;thus,he was a forerunner of someone like Huang Zongxi. We might even say that if the Song dynasty and later governments had adopted Lü Zuqian’s institutional perspective,China’s history would have been significantly different.