尊君、改制与“实理公法”的初创——以戊戌变法前康有为的世界观形塑为中心

Monarchy,Institutional Reform,and the Invention of“Essential Principles and Universal Laws”:Kang You-wei’s Worldview before 1898

随着19世纪末期思想与时势的密切互动,康有为在《教学通义》《康子内外篇》《实理公法全书》《新学伪经考》《孔子改制考》等著述当中,通过对传统经学与西方学说的“创造性诠释”,初步实现了他对于心目中新世界观的形塑。这一新世界观的核心内容有三:第一,在新的政治制度设计当中,凸显对于君权与大一统的尊崇;第二,在新的知识谱系与道德关系当中,以平等与人道的原则,建构以几何知识为框架的“实理公法”;第三,在文化认同的基础之上,重塑孔子“托古改制”的“素王”形象,进而推动儒学在殖民时代的自我转化与全球扩张。这一奠基于“实理公法”之上的新世界观形塑,意味着康有为开始尝试以一种倾向于客观知识与外部制度的“普遍性”,取代传统儒家世界观重视内在德性的“普遍性”。

The Transcendence of the worldview based on the“Heavenly principle”had been deeply shaken during the last decades of the Qing dynasty.As one of the most important intellectuals of the“age of transition”in modern China,Kang Youwei forged a particular kind of ideas,such as“universal laws,”“essential principles,”“three dynasties,”and“institutional reform”to seek for the self-strengthen of China in the 1880s and to approach the“Great Unity”in the future.Kang’s endeavors and narratives also molded his worldview which combined threefold.First,he devoted his loyalty to the universal kingship and the“great unification”of the Qing empire.Second,he invented the“universal laws”and“universal principles”which based on equality and humanity.And third,he reshaped the image of Confucius as the greatest political reformer to promote the self-transition and global transmission of Confucianism.Based on the“essential principles and universal laws,”Kang’s worldview helped him to explore a“new universalism”of objective knowledge and institutions to substitute for the“old universalism”of the morality of Confucianism.