老子圣人观

On Lao Tsu’s View of a Sage

“圣人”一词在王弼本《老子》中出现了31次,散见于26章,就词频而言,仅次于“道”“德”二词。《老子》中的圣人作为体道有德之人,其身份可以是君主,也可以是辅佐人主者,还可以是大丈夫一类的地位低一点的人物。圣人作为老子心目中的理想人格,是实现老子“小国寡民”的理想政治的关键人物。因此,老子的圣人观在某种程度上说,就是老子的政治观,是老子对于理想政治的一种认识,及对现实统治阶层的批评。

The word“sage”,in terms of word frequency,second only to the two words“Tao”and“De”,appeared 31 times in Wang Biben’s Laozi,scattered in Chapter 26.The sage in Laozi,as a virtuous person,can be a monarch,a helper,or a lower-ranking man.As the ideal personality in Laozi’s mind,a sage is the key figure to realize Laozi’s ideal politics of small country with few people.Therefore,Laozi’s view of a sage,to some extent,is Laozi’s view of politics,a kind of understanding of ideal politics and criticism of realistic ruling class.