何以不朽:先秦史论中的人之发现

How to Achieve Immortality:The Discovery of Man in Pre-Qin Historical Essays

先秦留下的史论,提供了“人之发现”的部分片段。以《吕氏春秋》为代表的先秦黄老学说,提倡在节欲的前提下,适度满足人的欲望。在类似的文献中,养生的目的是治国,追求的是现世价值。到了庄子那里,个体生命具备了与王命和天命对抗的地位,其价值完全超越了国政的意义,成为真正私人的追求。春秋时期,出现了另一种观点,即以奉献生命、牺牲生命而获得“不朽”。这种观念追求的是永恒价值。无论是将保养性命与政治价值相等同,还是单纯追求生命长度,抑或探索生命的永恒价值,其落脚点都是人的生命,亦即人本身。

Pre-Qin historical essays contain some fragmented views on“the discovery of man”.Pre-Qin Huang-Lao Taoism represented by The Spring and Autumn Annals advocates moderately satisfying human desires on the premise of abstinence.According to similar literature,health maintenance pursues the secular value of better governance of the state.However,Chuang Tzu held that individuals were endowed with the capability to antagonize the emperor and nature,so that health maintenance was a real private pursuit that completely outweighed state administration.In the Spring and Autumn Period there was another view claiming that sacrificing one’s life was the access to“immortality”in the pursuit of eternal value.Whether relating health maintenance with political value,or pursuing the length of life purely,these views set their foothold on human life,i.e.,man himself.