从甲骨文“俎”说到“义”观念的起源

ON THE ORIGINATION OF THE VIEW OF “Yì” REFERRING TO THE CHARACTER “ZU” IN ORACLE BONE INSCRIPTIONS

在我国传统观念里,"义"占有十分重要的位置。关于"义",专家对于这一观念基本完备以后的情况进行过深入研究,但对于其起源的情况则少有关注。事实上,从甲骨卜辞入手可以将"义"观念的起源追溯得更远。我们的讨论从甲骨文"俎"字开始。

As a very important concept,the view of "yì 义( righteousness) "in traditional culture of China actually originated from the character zu 俎 in oracle bone inscriptions. This character is written the same as the ancient script form of "yí 宜( right,apt,suitable) "quoted in Shuowen( Explanation and Study of Principles of Composition of Characters,by Xu Shen of the Eastern Han Dynasty).Therefore,it can be inferred that in the oracle bone inscriptions,the zu and yí were actually the same character. In the appearance contexts of selecting dates and times,choosing sacrifices,asking about events,this character"zu( or yí) "was usually used as the meaning of"right"or"suitable",and always matched the divinatory statements in Yijing,which showed that the character "zu( or yí) "was also used as "right"or "suitable"in addition to the meaning of sacrifice and worship offerings. The character "yì 义"in the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty was only used as personal names or place names,and had no meanings this character bears in the later periods. Down to the Western Zhou Dynasty,new meanings were assigned to the original character "yì 义",such as loaned as "yí 宜( right,suitable) ",used to express dignity or magnificence,justness,righteousness and ethics. During the Spring-and-Autumn Period,the character "yì 义"has been widely accepted by the society to express the concepts of social norms and ethics. The way of Confucius to use "yì 义 " was still that popularly recognized one, but he still interpreted in the chapter Zhongyong 中庸( the State of Equilibrium and Harmony) of Liji 礼记( Book of Rites) that "义者,宜也 [righteousness is( the accordance of actions with) what is right]",which directly points to the essential meaning of the view of "yì 义",in other words,its original source.