以事行道——基于泰州学派的考察

Practicing Dao by Act:A Research Based on the Taizhou School

以“得君行道”和“觉民行道”来划分理学的两种形态,并将王学以及作为王门后学的泰州学派作为“觉民行道”的主要范例,构成了余英时考察宋明理学的重要之点。然而,这一看法并不合乎思想的实际演化过程。以泰州学派而言,其重要特点首先体现于把“事”和“道”联系在一起。历史地看,正是“日用即道”,而非“得君行道”或“觉民行道”,构成了儒家的重要传统,明代王学包括泰州心学的重要特点,在于上承和突出了这一传统,并由此进而提出“以事行道”。在泰州学派那里,“以事行道”不仅涉及日用常行,而且关乎广义的经世活动,后者既包括人和对象的相互作用,也指向社会治理和人与人之间的交往过程。“以事行道”以人为行事主体,肯定“以事行道”,在逻辑上也包含着对人的作用的关注,后者体现于泰州学派所提出的“造命由我”观念。对主体力量的注重,逻辑地导向对自我的理解和定位。在“淮南格物说”“明哲保身论”之中,泰州学派这方面的思想得到了具体的体现,后者可以视为“以事行道”的观念在社会领域中的进一步展开。

To divide the Neo-Confucianism into two forms of“realizing Dao by the King”and“enforcing Dao by awakening people”,and considering Wang Yangming and the Taizhou School as the descendent of Wang as the main example of the latter,construct the important points when Ying-shih Yu inspecting the Neo-Confucianism in the Song-Ming period.However,such idea does not accord with the actual course.For the Taizhou School,its characteristics primarily reflect in the link between“act”and Dao.Historically,it was“things of everyday use mean the Dao”but not“realizing Dao by the King”or“enforcing Dao by awakening people”that construct the important tradition of Confucianism.The school of Wang Yangming including the philosophy of mind of Taizhou in the Ming period inherited and emphasized this tradition,and then presented the idea of“practicing Dao by act”.Such idea involves not only daily use and act,but also generalized statecraft;and the latter both includes interaction between man and his object,and points to social governance as well as communication among people.Taking man as the behavior subject,the idea of“practicing Dao by act”logically contains the concern of human role,which was reflected in the idea that“the destiny is mastered by oneself”raised by the Taizhou School.And such concern will logically lead to self-understanding and self-orientation.Among their theories,the one of“being worldly wise and making oneself safe”can be seen as a kind of expansion in the social field.