中国上古统治思想演变略述 (一)--以天人关系为中心

A Discussion on the Evolution of Ancient Chinese Ruling Thought(Ⅰ)--Focusing on the Relationship Between Heaven and Humanity

由于流行“万物有灵”观,中国与世界其他民族一样,也存在过一个“巫主民”的发展阶段。直到殷、周,随着王权政治的确立,“巫主民”才为“帝主民”或“天主民”所代替。西周王室一边“假威鬼神”,一边“阻兵保威”,通过让人“畏天”来维持人与人“相畏”的等级秩序,并将劳役和贡纳强制性地固定在周族下层劳动群众和被征服者身上。然而,进入春秋战国后,以强迫某族专服某役和专贡某物为内容的指定服役制度崩坏了,各国通过改革,推行履亩而税和按乘丘出兵赋,使剥削有了比例的规定,使人身第一次有了一定的自由。于是,人自身的价值被认识,人的独立性开始增强,人对天的看法得到校正,在儒家的引导下,人们通过“明于天人之分”逐步走出“神道设教”。不过,完全抛开天命鬼神,难以得到传统社会广泛认可。源自儒家,又突破了儒家的法术之士以农战为“一务”,虽有助于实现统一,却有悖于普通人热爱和平、期盼过正常生活的愿望。因此,在大规模的国内战争已经结束的汉代,董仲舒便建议汉武帝“变秦”“更化”,用“灾异见天意”和“天人感应”的办法重新接续天人关系,并将天道、阴阳、五行、自然都当作支撑“王道三纲”的基石。以“三纲”为核心的皇权专制理论是历史的产物,有一定的历史合理性,但与现代化格格不入。在弘扬中国优秀传统文化的同时,必须防止向封建迷信和封建道统倒退。

In China,as other nations,existed a period of“ruling under wizards”with the popularity of animism.The situation of“ruling under wizards”was not replaced by“ruling under ancestral gods”or“ruling under heaven”until the establishment of monarchy in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties.Kings in West Zhou took advantage of people’s fear of heaven to control the hierarchical order through the power of ghosts,gods or military troops and thereby forced the lower working class and the conquered to undergo labor service and pay gongna permanently.The assigned labor system of forceful labor service and gongna by a fixed group of people was however cracking during the period of Spring and Autumn and Warring States.Through the reformation in every state,the kings carried on military tax based on the land and Chengqiu(乘丘),in which there was a standard in the proportion of the exploitation and people had a degree of personal freedom.As a result,humans’value was recognized,which strengthened their independence and corrected their view on heaven.Under the influence of Confucianism,people began to give up their belief in ghosts and gods gradually while they knew the difference between heaven and humans,but it was impossible to give up their belief in ghosts and gods totally for which was difficult to be accepted by most of people in traditional society at that period of time.Legalists(法术之士)believing in Confucianism yet maintaining their new thinking carried on farming and wars,which was helpful in realizing the unity of all the states,but was nevertheless contrary to people’s willing of a peaceful life.Therefore,after the end of the large wars during the Han Dynasty,Dong Zhongshu recommended to Emperor Wu that the ruling way in the Qin Dynasty should be changed and“disasters owing to heaven’s will”and“human behaviors finding responses in heaven”should be borrowed to reconnect the relationship between heaven and the man.Besides,heavenly way(天道),Yinyang(阴阳),metal(金),wood(木),water(水),fire(火),earth(土)and nature should be treated as the basis of“king’s authority and his ruling principles”.The theory of imperial autocracy dominated by“the ruling principles”was the result of history,representing its existing rationality,but it is not compatible with modernization.In this way,we must have caution in going back to superstation and“the ruling principles”when we carry forward the excellent traditional Chinese cultures.