《老子》“能敝而不成”校释

The Emendation and Interpretation of“Nengbi er Bucheng”in Laozi

通行本“能蔽不新成”在古今造成了理解上的巨大障碍。此命题当校订为“能敝而不成”。“新”是两千多年前某加工者受《老子》二十二章“敝则新”影响,而在此处误增的衍文。这一误增,不仅使本句变得佶屈聱牙,还把人们的理解带入歧途。结合“大成若缺”可知,“能敝而不成”意为能安于缺而不奢求全,这正是“不欲盈”、知足知止的实践工夫。“能敝而不成”是个体的价值抉择,其原因一是盈不可久,二是若缺之敝本已是“大成”,三是消弭争端以维系和谐共处的关系格局。“能敝而不成”绝非所谓的“超级保守主义”,而是一种人生智慧,提醒着世人拨转原已颠倒的价值取向。

“Nengbi Buxincheng”in the current version of Laozi has been a great obstacle to people’s comprehension throughout history.This proposition must be emended as“Nengbi er Bucheng”.“Xin”is a redundant character added erroneously by someone who lived more than 2,000 years ago,due to the misleading of“Bi ze Xin”in Chapter 22.This not only makes the sentence awkward to pronounce,but also makes people’s understanding go astray.From the proposition“Dacheng Ruoque”,we can learn“Nengbi er Bucheng”means that a person is content with“Que”and does not excessively demand“Quan”.This is exactly the moral cultivation of“Buyuying”and“Zhizu Zhizhi”.“Nengbi er Bucheng”is an individual’s choice of values.It is based on several reasons:firstly,“Ying”is not sustainable;secondly,the“Bi”which seems incomplete is actually“Dacheng”;thirdly,by doing so,we can eliminate conflicts thus maintaining a harmonious relationship pattern.“Nengbi er Bucheng”is by no means the so-called“super conservatism”;rather,it is a kind of life wisdom,reminding folk to reverse the reversal of values.