古今之变与公私德行的现代理解

The Change between Ancient and Modern,and the Modern Understanding of Public and Private Virtue

中国近代以来重公德轻私德的偏向,是一个需要辨析的问题。循内部解释脉络,公私德行的关联与偏重需要一个平衡摆;以外部解释的理路,公私德行的功能与效用需要确定兼综性。如何平衡与兼综,需要一个社会坐标。古今之变,是分析公私德行状态的前提条件。在古代视角,私德的决定性显而易见;在现代视角,公德的优先明确无误。在现代处境中,不存在从私德直接贯通到公德的可能性。古代儒家以私人德性理解德行“公共性”的进路,需要转进到公私德行分流的现代结构,但私德的社会伦理效用与公德的政治伦理功能必须分别确认。这不是一个在中西差异角度审度的问题,而是一个在古今变局的角度才能够深切理解的问题;公私德行分流,是一个人类的普遍处境,而不是一个地域的特殊遭遇。

It is a problem needed to be analyzed that there has been existing a deviation of putting social morality over private virtue in China since modern times.In the context of internal interpretation,the relevance and deviation between public and private virtue needs a kind of balance;while in the context of external interpretation,the function and utility of public and private virtue needs to confirm the integration.And how to balance and integrate needs a social coordinate.The change between ancient and modern is the precondition for analyzing the state of public and private virtue.In the ancient perspective,the crucial role of private virtue is apparent;and in the modern perspective,the priority of public virtue is clear.There is no possibility for private virtue connecting directly with public virtue in modern context.The ancient Confucian approach of understanding publicness by private virtue needs to turn into the modern structure with the divergence between public and private virtue,yet the utility of private virtue on social ethics and the function of public virtue on political ethics should be confirmed respectively.It is not a problem which is examined in the perspective of differences between China and the West,but one that can only be deeply understood from the perspective of changes between ancient and modern;and the divergence between public and private virtue is a condition universal for mankind,but not a special experience for one region.