黄宗羲论“治法”与“治人”

The “Fine Law” (zhifa) and the “Fine Ruler” (zhiren):An Analysis of Huang Zongxi’s Discourse

黄宗羲批评"有治人无治法"而宣称"有治法而后有治人",这并非"人治"与"法治"之争,而是论证"法"在任何社会政体中具有比"人"更重要和更根本的作用,因此,政治的改善应该首先从变革"法"着手。在"治法"方面,黄宗羲批评"祖宗之法",认为"三代以下"的历代王朝之"法"均基于"私天下"的原理,因此"祖宗之法"并不足以成为善政之根本原则,并会带来诸多不良后果。在"治人"方面,黄宗羲所想象的新的统治格局是君臣上下的"群工"。他明确将君臣与父子分割,前者是以"天下"为目的的后天的约定,后者则是先天的血缘的自然关系。由此,在一定程度上,黄宗羲的政治论述脱离了原先具有古典本体论色彩的秩序思考模式,而具有了现代世俗社会想象的意味。

In his famous book Notes on Reform of Political System (Mingyi daifang lu),Huang Zongxi criticized the viewpoint that "there were only fine rulers but never fine law",and he declared that "only if there was fine law could there be fine rulers". This was not a dispute between "rule by man"and "rule of law",but rather an argument that"law"would play a more important and fundamental role than"man"in any kind of social politics. Therefore,the improvement of politics should start from reforming the law,rather than attempting to install better rulers.As for the "fine law",Huang Zongxi criticized the role of the "Ancestors’ Instructions" (zuzong zhi fa),which were made by the founding emperor (s) at the beginning of each dynasty. Throughout the whole dynasty,governors considered them as national constitutional principles. Huang Zongxi believed that these"Instructions"were entirely based on the principle of "privatizing the world for oneself" (si tianxia),rather than the principle of "the whole world as one community " (gong tianxia or tianxia wei gong).Therefore,he dismissed the"Ancestors’ Instructions"as unlawful laws (feifa zhi fa),and even more did he disparage the laws made by the successors of the founding emperors who were even more selfish and insatiable. He argued that the "Ancestors’ Instructions"were not adequate to stand as the fundamental and supreme laws necessary for good governance;on the contrary, they would bring many undesirable consequences. He believed that there would always be some politicians standing in the way of good reforms and even attacking their opponents just in the name of these "Instructions ". Indeed,this was only a reflection of their selfishness and would just make social politics much worse than before,even to an incurable degree.As for the"fine ruler",Huang Zongxi imagined a new institutionalized ruling pattern that was based on"teamwork by colleagues" (qun gong) that comprised the emperor and his officials. As Yu Ying-shih recognized,this ruling pattern was clearly inspired by the political ideals and the cultural heritages of the neo-Confucian intellectuals beginning in the Song dynasty. Huang Zongxi imagined that political colleagues should be working like a group of haulers,for governing the world was just like the hauling of logs.Furthermore,unlike most Confucian scholars before him in Chinese history,Huang clearly differentiated the relationship between the emperor and his officials from that between the parents and their children. The former was based on a man-made contract for the common purpose of "the world " (tianxia) and the common good of all people,while the latter was based on the natural state of the lineage bloodline. Thus,to a certain extent,Huang Zongxi’s political discourses broke away from the outdated thinking of "universal order",which was based in classical ontology,and what he had in mind was more like modern secular society,which was based in the ideal of equality,and this has much in common with the thought of the famous Western philosopher,Charles Taylor.