工夫论视域下王阳明“无善无恶心之体”的再审视

A New Interpretation of Wang Yangming’s“There Is No Good or Evil in the Essence of Heart”

对阳明四句教首句“无善无恶心之体”的不同阐释,是阳明“心学”著名公案之一。学界多将“心之体”理解为“心体”,“无善无恶”常常被诠释为“至善”。“四句教”如是解读过多强调了上半截的形上“心体”,而下半截的形下工夫则被遮蔽。本文指出“心之体”不是“心体”之本然,而是心之“本来体段”。而心之“本来体段”指的是“心体”的外在显用,即阳明晚年的工夫法门——“致良知”。“良知”能够知是知非,又在于“好恶”。于此,阳明对先秦儒家“好恶”观既有承继,也有突破。

The Four-sentence Doctrine embodies the essence of Wang Yangming’s theory of conscience.The interpretations and arguments on the doctrine’s first sentence,“There is good or evil in the essence of Heart”,have never stopped since it came into being.Most people in academic circles claim that this sentence means a proposal of“supreme good”.But this explanation emphasizes the idea rather than the practice.This paper points out that“Wang Yangming School”is not only“a school of thought”,but also“a school of practice”,which is related to Yang-ming’s best-known theory——“the Extension of Innate Knowledge”.“Innate Knowledge”helps people distinguish black from white,good from evil.Based on this,“Wang Yangming School”has both inheritance and innovation of Confucianism of the pre-Qin period.