“以意逆志”辩证

A Textual Critique on Mencius’ Perception of “Tracing back Intent through Understanding”

孟子以意逆志之"意"的本意问题是中国文论史和阐释学中的一桩公案。清代吴淇将"汉宋诸儒"所理解的孟子之"意"解为私意或臆度,并将之与自己所提出的"古人之意"相对立,因而出现了文本、读者两派之争。汉宋诸儒所理解的孟子之"意"实则为一种始终"唯本文本意是求"且有"置心平易"限制的读者-文本之意。继起的明清读者之意派将"知人论世"作为基础补入"以意逆志"的工作拓宽了理解作者的途径,却反过来促使"本文本意"限制的消隐和读者意识中不确定性的进一步放大。当代读者之意派在此基础上更加坐实了对"意"漫无定准乃至于断章取义的指认和批评,同时又在西方阐释学的影响下形成一些新解释,并对吴淇的观点提出质疑。但吴淇所理解的孟子之"意"因实际逆志活动中读者意识的参与必然被转为文本-读者之意,这与汉宋诸儒所理解的读者-文本之意反而具有内在的一致性。在此基础上重新探讨孟子本意,发现读者之意与文本之意彼此融合而成的缺一不可的整体,才是以意逆志之"意"的真正本意。至于孟子所体认的究竟是读者还是文本角度,则是没有答案的。

One long-standing debate in Chinese literary criticism and hermeneutics has been over the meaning of "intent"(yi) in Mencius’ notion of "tracing back intent through understanding(yiyi nizhi). The debate between the text-centred and the reader-centred is renown due to Qing scholar Wu Qi’s(1615-75) positing his interpreting Mencius’ "intent" as idea of antique scholars against what he understood to be Han-Song scholars’ interpretation of it as personal opinion or conjecture. opinion of ancient people. The Han-Song Confucian scholars understood Mencius’ "intent" from the reader’s perspective, as the intent of text-based reader. Scholars in the Ming and Qing dynasties referred to social contexts and broadened the way to understand the author, but this approached undermined the limitation of the original text and strengthened readers’ subjectivity in interpretation. Following their Ming and Qing predecessors, contemporary scholars explore new possibilities of "intent" under the influence of Western hermeneutics, and attempt a decontextualized critique of Wu Qi’s interpretation. In fact, due to readers’ conscious involvement in the interpretive process, Wu Qi’s understanding of "intent" is inevitably the intent reader-filtered text, which was inherently consistent with Han-Song scholars’ intent of text-based reader. The intent may be interpreted from the perspective of the reader or the text, and Mencius’ standpoint on this remains unknown. This paper argues that the integration of both perspectives is the true meaning of the intent in "tracing back intent through understanding".