《孟子》释读辨误(四则)

Four errors in interpretation of the Mencius

传统经典须细读,在细读的基础上领会真义。历代注家对《孟子》的注疏多有误读之处,如“攘”,本义为“取自来之物”,经“多少同盗”,演变为“攘”即“盗”;“巨室”初谓国君住的大房子,这里当喻指国君,但注家多强解为指大臣;舜在“完廪”“浚井”的过程中是如何脱难的,本文没有说,注家依据其他材料做了合理化解读,未必符合本义。“坏宫室以为汙池”,如从人类社会发展史的角度来释读,实际上是要维持以渔猎为生的生存方式。致误的根源有“非黑即白”的思维方式、前后矛盾、对古代“不雅驯”的文字进行改造等。

Traditional classics need to be read carefully,and the true meaning should be understood on this basis.There are some misunderstandings in the annotations of the Mencius.For example,the original meaning of“Rang”is“taking things falling into your lap”,and the meaning has evolved into“theft”after the interpretation that“identification of theft does not consider how much is thieved”.“Large mansion”means originally the big house where the king lives and is used to refer to the king,but it is often interpreted as ministers.How Shun got rid of the difficulties when“repairing the granary”and“dredging the well”was not mentioned in the work.Interpreters have made reasonable interpretations based on other materials but may not be in line with the original intention.“Destroying houses to build ponds”means to maintain the living mode of fishing and hunting from the perspective of the development history of human society.Root causes of these errors include the black-and-white thinking mode,contradictions,and transformation of ancient“unsophisticated”expression.