形精不亏,反以相天——论王船山庄子学气化生死观

No Loss in the Physical and the Mental,but Complementing with Heaven:On Wang Chuanshan’s Idea on Zhuangzi’s Concept of Qi Concerning Life and Death

生死出处问题,是明清之际遭遇家国覆亡的王船山极为关心的问题。在其晚年专著《庄子解》中,船山认同庄子以气之聚散解释生死现象,同时也指出庄子之齐同生死不仅消解了生与死之界限,对生命意义的否定容易混淆善恶是非与人禽之别,甚至直接瓦解儒家德道践履之根基。不同于程朱“死则散尽无余”之说,船山认为人之生死不过是形体之成毁,己身生命之气复归太虚而恒存不灭,且持藏毕生善恶作为的个体之气随气之聚散往复影响整体太虚之气的清浊醇疵,进而影响人间社会乃至未来局势之治乱兴衰。个体生命虽无法主持分剂气之聚散流行,但可主导己身气质之清浊善恶。儒家仁人君子应以修身尽性之道德践履,涵养扩充己身清醇之气,进而通过气化流行参赞天地之化育。善吾生者所以善吾死也,个体生命的存在意义因参与社会历史之创造而延及来世与群生。

The origin of life and death is what concerned Wang Chuanshan greatly when he was faced with the collapse of the country at the turn of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.In his treatise Chuangzi Jie(Interpretation of Zhuangzi)in his later years,Chuanshan agreed with Chuangzi’s explanation of life and death in terms of the gathering and dispersion of qi.At the same time,he pointed out that Chuangzi’s interpretation of life and death not only dispels the boundary between life and death,but also confuses the difference between good and evil and between human beings and animals by denying the meaning of life,and even directly dissolves the foundation of the Confucian practice of virtue.Different from Cheng Zhu’s idea that“everything disappears after death”,Wang Chuanshan thinks that life and death is but the construction and destruction of body,and the qi of life,after one’s death,will return to the Grand Void and remain there permanently.Moreover,the qi of individuals,carrying the good and evil of their acts,with this process of gathering and dispersing,influence the clearness and purity of overall qi of the Grand void and further influence the human society and even the fall and rise of the country in the future.Although individual life cannot control the gathering and dispersing of qi,it can dominate the good and evil of one’s own temperament.The Confucian benevolent gentleman should cultivate and expand his pure and mellow spirit with the moral practice of self-cultivation,and then promote the cultivation of heaven and earth through his qi of life.Those who are good in life are good in death.The meaning of existence of individual life is extended to afterlife and group life because of participating in the creation of social history.