《庄子》关于理解的悲剧性启示——《逍遥游》鲲鹏寓言解读史及其本旨论析

Tragic Enlightenment on Comprehension in Zhuangzi:An Interpretation of the Reception History and the Topic of Fable kunpeng in the Chapter“Free and Easy Wandering”

《庄子·逍遥游》开篇鲲鹏寓言略有庄子著述小引之意,历代影响力最大的诸种解读,虽异彩纷呈,多未能正视重心,理解本旨:或聚焦于鲲鹏之飞南冥天池,或着眼于鲲鹏蜩鸠自适之飞,或用心于鲲鹏蜩鸠之飞的囿限,或致意于北冥南冥与鲲鹏之变化,故以为寓意绝尘逍遥、适性逍遥、无以逍遥、转化超升,或兼采诸意,诸如此类,均游离甚至背离庄子本意。鲲鹏寓言之重心在蜩、鸠之笑鲲鹏与作者之贬斥:“之二虫,又何知!”本旨应是因庄子自觉意识到人与人之间理解、沟通甚为不易,一方面提示读者,勿轻易以自己之浅近境界,误读文本,误解作者,以致非议嘲笑追求超越境界者;另一方面作出关于理解的悲剧性启示:不同生存状态与语境的人,在交流中目击道存、莫逆于心是甚为不易的。虽“小知不及大知”一句颇直白醒目,注疏家们亦甚加关注,具体解析仍多偏离其主旨。

As to the fable kunpeng(an enormous legendary bird metamorphosed from a fish)in the Chapter“Free and Easy Wandering”as the introduction of Zhuangzi,its most influential interpretations in different dynasties,despite multiplicity,mostly diverged from its focus and theme.For instance,some readers were concerned about kunpeng’s flight to Nanming Tianchi(the Pool of Heaven in the Southern Darkness),or others considered tiao(the cicada),jiu(the cooer)and kunpeng’s flight with self-ease.Some paid attention to these animals’limitations of hovering,while others researched Beiming(the Northern Darkness)and Nanming and kunpeng’s transformation.Therefore,this fable was correspondingly explained as the free and easy wandering beyond the mundane,the free and easy wandering with self-adaption,the incapability of the free and easy wandering,or the wandering of ascending transformation.Some researchers integrated the above explanations,which were all far away from Master Zhuang’s intention.The core meaning of the fable kunpeng,in my view,was embodied in tiao and jiu’s ridicule of kunpeng and the author’s despise of tiao and jiu,as he wrote,“but a couple of weevils in the meal won’t know the difference.”The main significance of this fable was Master Zhuang consciously acknowledging the difficulty of communication and comprehension between humans.He intended to remind readers not readily misunderstanding this article and the author by our superficial intelligence on one hand.On the other,he enlightened us to see the tragedy of human’s comprehension,which meant the dilemma of human’s cognitive process by observation and empathy.He wrote“small understanding doesn’t get to where great understanding gets,”straightforward and striking as the sentence was,most of the concrete analysis have yet departed from this article’s main point.