“公子友如陈”:《公羊传》与“亲亲”“尊尊”儒家思想

“Prince You Went to the State of Chen”:Gongyang’s Commentary on The Spring and Autumn Annals and the Confucian Thought of “Love for His Kin” and “Respect for His Elders and Superiors”

中国传统思想偏向于不直言抽象原则,而是通过论述具体事件来表达普遍真理。据此理,本文将以庄公二十五、二十七年《春秋》经:“冬,公子友如陈”之经文为例而阐释出儒家思想基本性之“亲亲”“尊尊”对立面概念结构。通过仔细分析公子友之性格、政治背景以及历史角色,将讨论“亲亲”“尊尊”与一系列对立面概念之亲密关系,即“质”与“文”,“阴”与“阳”,“仁”与“义”,“内”与“外”等因素,然后考之于先秦典籍,既指出其张力以及互相排除关系,又解释其相辅相成而互相依赖之本质。最后,将“亲亲”“尊尊”与其对应概念系列置于妥当哲学背景下,论述为先秦儒家思想之普遍思维形式之一,有客观重要性于人性、道德、社会、历史以及政治思想。以期能够揭露《春秋》公羊学连贯一致逻辑结构之一隅。

Traditional Chinese thought tends not to speak out about abstract principles, but to express universal truths by discussing specific events. Based on this reasoning, this essay, taking for example “In winter, Prince You Went to the State of Chen” in Zhuang Gong’s 25th and 27th year from Gongyang’s Commentary on The Spring and Autumn Annals,illustrates the conceptual structure opposite to the basic nature of Confucianism such as “love for his kin” and “respect for his elders and superiors”. Through a detailed analysis of Prince You’s personality, political background and historical role, it first elucidates the intimate relationship between “love for his kin”, “respect for his officials” and a series of concepts opposite to them, namely “content” and “form”, “yin” and “yang”, “benevolence” and “righteousness”, “inner” and “outer”, etc. Then, it examines these concepts from the classics of pre-Qin Dynasty, not only to point out their tension and mutual exclusion, but also to explain their complementary and mutually dependent nature. Finally, it places “love for his kin”, “respect for his elders and superiors” and their opposite concepts in a proper philosophical context, describing them as one of the universal thinking forms of pre-Qin Confucianism, which is of objective importance in human nature, morality, society, history and political thought.