杨万里易学的义理建构与现实关切

Construction of Principle and Concern of Reality in Yang Wanli’s Scholarship on the Changes

“引史证易”是杨万里易学的显著特色。相较汉唐的“以史注易”“以史解易”,其“引史证易”更注重义理学构建。他认为《易》乃通变之书,试图由《易》之理洞照天人之理,再以“史证其理”完成易道即天理的哲学构建。在心性论上,杨万里受到了湖湘学派的影响,主张“性体心用”;在工夫论上,他推崇二程的诚敬工夫,强调工夫修养必须落实在日用常行、经世致用之中。究其根本,“引史证易”只是其治《易》的方法、工具,其目的在于从浩瀚的史实中梳理出盛衰治乱之理,进而把注解《周易》与拯救国运的现实关切联系起来。

A salient feature of Yang Wanli’s(1127-1206) scholarship on the Changes is “attesting to the Changes by citing historical events”. Comparing with the “annotating or interpreting the Changes by historical events” from the Han(206 BCE-220 CE) to the Yang(618-907) dynasties, Yang’s approach paid more attention to the construction of principle. He contended that the Changes was a book coping with changes of situation, by which he attempted to shed light on the principle communicating Heaven and human beings by the principle conceived in the Changes, and use historical evidence to attest to these principles. As far as his heart-mind theory is concerned, he was influenced by the Huxiang school and averred that human innate nature is the root and heart-mind the manifestation. In regard to self-cultivation, he upheld Cheng Yi(1032-1085) and Cheng Hao’s(1033-1107) adherence to sincerity and reverence, and underlines fulfilment of moral cultivation in daily life and practice. To put it in a nutshell, his approach to the Changes was only a method and tool, and his purpose lies in sorting out the principle of prosperity and decline from the vast historical events, and further connecting his hermeneutics to the salvation of the fortune of the state, which was his concern of reality.