以道尊君与诠法--慎到政治哲学再阐释

To Respect a Ruler and to Explain Law Through Dao:Reinterpretation of Shen Dao’s Political Philosophy

老子学说中的一些模糊之处和内在张力,为慎到建构自己的政治哲学提供了空间。慎到重新诠释了道的内涵,并提出理是道的分殊,是每件事物和事物关系的先天特性。在法道实践的进路上,慎到更重视彻底因循事物自然状态的意义。正是缘于这些观念,慎到理解和建构的社会与政治活动原则和理想状态,与老子有很大差异。慎到把以君主独尊为特征的封建等级制、君主应使用的统治术,以及作为社会规则的礼法视为社会政治之理的重要内容。他用道家的形而上学论证了尊君和封建等级制的正当性,提出君主应当运用去贤去忠和因众借势等手腕来维护和增强权势。慎到还用道诠释了法的权威性,并且认为法是衡量百姓活动是否达到自然无为状态及政府行为是否适当的标准。

Some ambiguities and the inner tension in Laozi’s theory leave room for Shen Dao’s construction of his own political philosophy.He reinterprets the connotation of Dao and proposes that the principle is the partic⁃ipation of Dao and the innate characteristic of everything and the relationship between things.On the way to the practice of following Dao,Shen Dao pays more attention to completely following the meaning of the natural state of things.It is because of these ideas that the principles and ideals of social and political activities understood and constructed by him are quite different from those by Laozi.Shen Dao regards the feudal hierarchy character⁃ized by the supremacy of a ruler,the art of ruling that a ruler should use,and law and discipline rite as a social rule,as the important parts of the social and political principle.He employs the Daoist metaphysics to demon⁃strate the legitimacy of the respect for a ruler and the feudal hierarchy,and proposes that a ruler should main⁃tain and enhance his power and influence by abandoning the virtuous and the loyal and drawing upon the major⁃ity to increase his force.Shen Dao also interprets the authority of law through Dao,and believes that law is the standard to measure whether the people’s activities reach the state of natural inaction and whether the govern⁃ment’s behavior is appropriate.