从孟、告“生之谓性”之辩看物性与人性

Discussions on Things Nature and Human Nature Based on Mengzi and Gaozi's Debates of“What We Are Born with Is What We Call Nature”

“生之谓性”是告子的代表性观点,并由此引发了孟、告之间关于“羽雪玉”之白如何导向“犬牛人”之性及人物之性同异等多方面的讨论。其间,含摄了性与形色、人性与物性、天命与气禀、形而下与形而上等多方面的内容,并涉及知觉运动与作用是性的问题,体现了儒学从传统经学到宋明理学发展中对性论问题的关注及其理论建构。

"What we are born with is what we call nature"is a representative argument of Gaozi,which later triggered his discussions with Mengzi on the white of"feather,snow,and jade"on the nature of"dogs,oxen,and human beings",and further on the similarities and differences between the nature of things and human beings.These discussions are related with many philosophi-cal issues,such as the relationship between nature and bodily organs with their functions,nature between human beings and things,mandate from Heaven and endowment from Qi,and the rela-tionship between physics and metaphysics.Also,they are connected with the problem of perceptual activities and that of functions being referred to as nature.All of these discussions show that Confu-cianism has paid attention to the issue of nature and has attempted to build a theory on it in the development of Confucianism from the Classics Studies in ancient China to Neo-Confucianism in the Song Ming Dynasties.