儒家天道与政治的限度

The Limits of Confucian Concept of Heaven and Politics

近代以来,以天道为基础的儒家传统政治思想体系经受了毁灭性的批评,天道与政治的合谋往往被视为导致王权主义乃至集权专制主义的根本原因。现代政治儒学试图复兴天道观念,以之为政治合法性基础或者良知的根据。这两种路径都将儒家天道观念本质化,无视其与传统知识系统和价值观念之间的共在关系,忽略了以天道为基础的儒家政治思想的有限性。对儒家天道与政治观念的本质化理解存在着思想性和历史性的双重迷失,且对儒家天道观念的现代转化毫无裨益。天道与政治不应当视为静态概念结构而应当视为实践话语,天道观念与政治权力互相生存、互相建构,才能深入到政治实践。在承认当前社会实在和社会观念的合理性基础之上,通过社会想象建构,儒家天道仍然可以成为现代政治思想体系的重要构成因素。

The Confucian political philosophy is rooted in the belief of Heaven,which has been criticized systematically in modern China.The combination of politics and the concept of Heaven has been concerned with the causation of the traditional authoritarianism and totalitarianism.In order to justify the theory of political legitimacy or the conscience theory,contemporary Confucianism wants to resurrect the concept of Heaven.These interpretations of Heaven ignore the coexistence of traditional system of knowledge and belief,overlook the limitation of Confucian political theory.The idea of Heaven should be regarded as a discourse of praxis than an essentialism concept,which means the connotation of Heaven is shaped unceasingly by the power of the idea and the reality.Under the recognition of current social reality and social idea,the concept of Heaven still could be treated as the active ingredient in modern Chinese society.