“进化之理,文明之要,以礼为本”——廖平的“礼三本”文明进化论兼及对康有为“人为天生”说的商榷

"The Principle of Evolution,the Essence of Civilization,is Etiquette Oriented"——Liao Ping’s Evolution Theory of"Li San Ben"and a Discussion on Kang Youwei’s Theory of"Human is Born by Tian"

《伦理约编》是晚清经学家廖平所作伦理学讲义。在该书中,他用进化的方式重构了儒家经典中的伦理思想。首先,他将《仪礼·丧服》中的尊卑伦理主体,构拟为具有时间维度的进化符号。以此为线索,廖平把《荀子》"礼有三本"说,拆分为从"奉一天"到"礼三本"的历时结构,使得孔子创制之"礼"成为人类从野蛮走向文明的进化法则。最后,廖平又创造性地将三年丧解释为大同世之礼,使其成为逻辑上的进化终点。这便形成了一套以"礼三本"为标志的文明进化论。同时,廖平的"礼三本"文明进化论与同样具有进化色彩的康有为"人为天生"说,产生了极大的思想张力。这在1913年康、廖间的书信交流中留下了些许痕迹。

Lun Li Yue Bian is a lecture on ethics by Liao Ping,a Confucian scholar in the late Qing Dynasty.In this book,he reconstructed the ethical thoughts in Confucian classics by means of evolution.First of all,he constructed the ethical subject of Yili Sangfu into evolutionary symbol with time dimension.Taking this as a clue,Liao Ping divided the theory of"Li San Ben"in Xunzi into a diachronic structure from"one day worship"to"three rites",which made the"Rites"created by Confucius become the evolutionary law of human beings from barbarism to civilization.Finally,Liao Ping creatively interpreted the three-year funeral as a rite of Datong world,making it a logical end point of evolution.This formed a set of civilization evolutionism marked by"Li San Ben".At the same time,Liao Ping’s"Li San Ben"evolution theory and Kang Youwei’s"human is born by Tian"theory also have great ideological tension.This left some traces in the correspondence between Kang and Liao in 1913.