“真”与“独”:论《庄子》中两种不同的最高境界

“Trueness” and “Uniqueness”:On the Two Different Highest Realms in Zhuang zi

冯友兰先生认为庄子混淆了自然境界与天地境界,但事实并非如此。自然境界与天地境界的本质差异在于“我”之不同:前者是“无我”的境界,后者是“有大我”的境界。而庄子明确区分了这两种不同的境界:“无我”的境界庄子称之为“真”境,处于“真”境中的人是“真人”;“有大我”的境界庄子称之为“独”境,处于“独”境中的人为“畸人”。冯友兰先生之所以误判庄子,是因为两者对于最高境界的判断标准不同。庄子以“无待”来定义最高境界,所以其最高境界包含了“主客对待尚未生成”的自然境界和“超越主客对待”的天地境界。从工夫论的角度来讲,“真”境是庄子所向往的最高境界,而“独”则是庄子通过“忘”的修养工夫所能达到的最高境界。在这个意义上,可以说庄子欲“反真”而终“见独”。

Feng Youlan(1895-1990) argued that Zhuang zi(369-286 BCE) confused the realm of naturalness with the realm of Heaven-Earth, which is not true of the fact. The essential difference between these two realms lies in the difference of “subjectivity”: the former is the realm of “egoless”, and the latter is the realm of “Self”. Zhuang zi clearly distinguished these two different realms: the former is called the “True” state and a person who attains to this realm is a “True Person”;and the latter is called the “Unique” state, a person who attains to this realm is a “Unique Person”. The reason Feng Youlan misjudged Zhuang zi is that they have different judgment standards for the highest realm. Zhuang zi defines the highest realm with “depending on nothing”, so the highest realm includes the True state that “the opposition between subject and object has not come into being” and the Unique state which “surpass the opposition between subject and object”. From the perspective of the theory of moral cultivation and practice, the True realm is the highest state that Zhuang zi aspires to, and the Unique state is the highest state that Zhuang zi can achieve through the cultivation practice of “forgetting”. In this sense, it can be said that Zhuang zi wants to go back to the True realm, but finally attains to the Unique realm.