权力任性与思想韧劲的较量——从秦始皇“焚书坑儒”和朱元璋诏令刘三吾删削《孟子》成《孟子节文》说起

Battle between Waywardness of Power and Resilience of Thought: Starting from Qin Shihuang’s “Burning Books and Burying Taoist Priests” to Zhu Yuanzhang’s Edict of Ordering Liu Sanwu to Edit Mencius into Excerpts from Mencius

权力从其产生那天起就是任性的,它总是打压于己不合的思想,杀伐坚持这种思想的知识分子,但权力又总是在思想面前败阵。中国历史上儒学的发展历程证明,思想一旦被思想者发现并成体系地表述出来,它包含的真理就会被人们认可并成为信仰,而且能够一代一代地传下去。任凭权力如何杀伐和打压,也无法彻底消灭它的存在。因为思想是永久的,而权力的施为则只能在特定的时空内彰显。历史当然也记载权力的辉煌,但那只是历史;而思想却是永久的存在,时时能激动人的心灵并促成新的思想的产生和闪现。

Power has been wayward since it came into being and it always suppresses the thought that does not conform to it and kills the intellectuals who adhere to such thought.But power always fails before thought in their battle.The development of Confucianism in Chinese history has proved that once a kind of thought is discovered and expressed systematically by the thinkers,the truth in it will be recognized and become a belief,and it will be passed on from generation to generation.No matter how it kills and suppresses thought,power cannot completely eliminate it,because thought is permanent,and the exercise of power can only be manifested in a specific time and space.History,of course,records the glory of power,but it is only history;but thought is a permanent existence,which can always excite the soul and promote the emergence and flash of new ideas.