荀子历史观新论

New Perspective on Xunzi’s View of History

作为先秦儒家最后的代表,荀子是一位承前启后的思想家。承前在于集诸子百家思想之大成,启后在于为秦汉大一统帝国的建立发思想之先声。而这一切就体现在荀子的历史观中。荀子将历史的源头追溯到尧、舜、禹时代,尧、舜、禹创立的先王之道以礼义为主要内容。荀子详细考察了社会的起源,实际仍是围绕礼义的核心价值来展开。人既作为历史主体,更作为认识主体参与历史建构。人具有自然与社会双重属性,社会历史的有序发展在于自然属性与社会属性的协调统一。以礼义为内容的先王之道是变动历史中的不变秩序,构成历史规律并维系着历史的进程。荀子坚持道德是历史进步的根本动力,同时人民大众是社会历史的基石,其作用不容小觑。荀子认为,"义立而王"是最上等的治国之道,也是历史发展的正确方向。

As the last representative of Confucianism in the Pre-Qin Period,Xunzi was a thinker who carried on the past by integrating the thoughts of various schools and was the ideological pioneer in the establishment of the unified empires of Qin and Han dynasties.All these are reflected in Xunzi’s view of history.Xunzi traced the origin of history back to the Times of Yao,Shun and Yu whose doctrine was mainly composed of rites and righteousness.Xunzi investigated the origin of society in detail focusing on the core value of rites and righteousness.As the subject of history,man participates in the historical construction as the subject of cognition.Man has both natural and social attributes,and the orderly development of social history lies in the coordination and unity of natural and social attributes.The doctrine of the former emperors with the content of rites and righteousness is the invariable order in the changing history,which constitutes the historical law and maintains the historical process.Xunzi insisted that morality was the fundamental driving force of historical progress while the public was the cornerstone of social history,whose role could not be underestimated.Xunzi believed that"a king established by righteousness"was the best way to govern a country and the correct direction of historical development.