乘时通变:文中子易学思想及其政治主张

Changing with Time:Wang Tong’s Scholarship on the Changes and His Political Views

隋代大儒王通的政治思想进路源自家传易学的"乘时通变"思想,展现于其具体方面则有不同表现。在宗教观上,王通秉持儒学在政治思想领域中的主导地位,同时又肯定了佛道二教在教化民心方面的补充作用,提出"三教可一"说;在制度论上,他舍弃玄远的"二帝三王"旧说,提出取法文献记载完备、参考价值更大的"两汉之制",尊奉"七制之主"的观点;在民族观上,他恰当应对民族大融合的现实状况,抛开"夷夏之辨"的偏见,以能行仁政善治者为天命所归,认可少数民族汉化政权的正当性。王通的思想,是大分裂时代结束,隋唐大一统创建之时,儒学自身发展变革以顺应时代要求而产生的新的理论高峰。

Wang Tong(584-617)was a great Confucian in the Sui dynasty(581-619),whose political claim of"taking advantage of time and changing with it"was inherited from his ancestors’teaching of the Changes and has different manifestations in specific domains.In terms of religion,Wang insisted on the dominant position of Confucianism in politics,affirmed the supplementary role of Buddhism and Daoism in edification at the same time,and put forward the theory that the three religions can be integrated into one;in terms of institution,he abandoned the recondite,old theory based on the governance of remote sage rulers and preferred the"system of the Han dynasty(202 BCE-220 CE)"which was recorded more comprehensively and had more referential value;in terms of national viewpoint,he coped with the actual situation of national integration appropriately,put aside the prejudice of the discrimination between Chinese and the so-called barbarians,regarded those who could practice good and benevolent governance as the receivers of the mandate of heaven,and recognized the legitimacy of minority regimes.Wang Tong’s thought was the new theoretical peak of Confucianism which came into being when the era of division ended and the empire reunified in the Sui and Tang(618-907)dynasties.