孔子前后的《易》

Book of Changes Before and After Confucius

《易》自始即问津天人之际。孔子之前的《易》用于占筮,占筮乃是向着天人之际卜问当下人事之吉凶休咎的消息;由孔子肇其端,被重新诠释的《易》用于发明"德义",从天人之际推绎人生意义之究竟。《易》成其为"经"是因着它在被诠释中有了别一种蕴义,如此诠释它的文字是所谓《易传》。所以当《周易》被奉之为"经"时,这"经"即意味着《易传》亦在其中以至于与原初的《易》一体相属而不可暌离,尽管出于言议的方便,相对于《易传》的那些卦爻之象、辞往往也可独立以"经"称。观象玩辞而谛辨其义,一以贯之于《易》之"简易""变易""不易"之理者,应可一言以蔽之曰:"生。"质言之,"易之道"正不妨径直谓之"生"之"道"。如果说与吉凶关联着的"福"在人生追求的有待维度上,那么不以利害为转移的"德"则在人生追求的无待维度上。

Since its forming, the Book of Changes(Yi Ching) has been a book aimed at bridging man and heaven. Before Confucius’ time, it was used for divination, seeking to predict the good or bad fortune of the people and business of the moment. Confucius took the initiative to reinterpret the Book of Changes to reveal the "moral connotation" suggested by its original scriptures and hexagrams and to comprehend the meaning of life by relating man to heaven. That the Book of Changes finally becomes a "Confucianist Scripture" results from its acquiring such a fresh connotation, and the texts aimed at reinterpreting it is called Yi Zhuan(Commentary on Yi Ching). Therefore, when the Book of Changes is taken as a "Scripture, " it includes not only its original scriptures and hexagrams(Yi Ching) but also its commentary(Yi Zhuan), which two have become an organic one, although on some occasion of academic discussion, only the former alone is mentioned as "Scripture" for convenience. The one single principle that goes through the whole Book of Changes, namely the principle of "simplicity, " "changeability" and "unchangeability, " as is expressed respectively, can be summed up as the principle of "Life." To put it briefly, the "Way of Changes" is nothing but the "Way of Life, " which unfolds itself in two dimensions, the dependent "fortune" whose fulfillment is subject to external conditions and the independent moral "self-perfection" that is free from any utilitarian consideration.