“神人无功”与圣人的逍遥--论《庄子·逍遥游》中的藐姑射山神人之寓言

“The Divine Man Has no Efficacy”and the Sage’s Peripateticism:On the Allegory of the Divine Man on Miaoguye Mountain in“A Peripatetic Excursion”of Chuang Zi

《庄子·逍遥游》中的藐姑射山神人作为最高自由主体的寓言化表达,其显现有着透视主义的机制,即对着不同存在层次的主体而有不同的显现,这才是最高自由主体有着神人、圣人之不同面貌的根本原因。神人所居住的藐姑射山之远与近,并不是物理的客观距离,而是知行工夫所开启的距离,因为世人不识,所以遥远。圣人能够在出世与入世之间达到高度的平衡与统一,能够做到出入相即,即以出世的精神来从事入世的事业。圣人虽能转化他者,却不以此为目的,而只是专注自己的修身养神,故而转化外物对他们而言只是其自我转化的副产品;这其中的根本在于圣人不以功为功,而是引发、调动百姓之自为其功,因而其功是无功之功,即他的功不是直接应事成物,而是让物自成、让人自功;同时无功之功本质上又是功效之最大化,即充分调动了百姓民人之功,使得所有人都成为功效的施动主体。

In“A Peripatetic Excursion”of Chuang Zi,the divine Man on Miaoguye Mountain is depicted as an allegorized subject with highest freedom.His representation bears the mechanism of perspectivism;namely,it varies with subjects of different existing levels,which is the fundamental reason why he possesses features of both a divine man and a sage.The distance from the mountain where he lives is not the physical one but the gap between knowledge and practice,meaning it is distant just because people don’t know about its existence.The sage can strike a superb balance and unity between retreat and engagement,i.e.,he can engage in undertakings with the spirit of a hermit.He does not aim to transform others though he has such an ability;instead,he focuses on self-cultivation,and transforming others is thus only a by-product of his self-cultivation.The key to understanding this is that the sage never takes efficacy as efficacy.What he does is to inspire common people to seek their own efficacy.Therefore,the sage realizes efficacy out of no efficacy,i.e.,his efficacy are not realized by dealing with specific things or people,but by inspiring things to develop and people to realize efficacy by themselves.This efficacy out of no efficacy in fact maximizes the efficacy because it fully activates people’s efficacy and turn them into active subjects of efficacy.