自利利他:近代中国绅商居士的义利抉择

Self-benefiting altruism:gentry-merchants’ choice between profit and righteousness in China’s modern period

义利关系问题是中国哲学的关键议题之一。相对于过去主流的重义轻利学说,义和利同等重要的观念在近代逐渐被接受,并促使传统士绅和商人阶层成功对流形成绅商阶层。如何实现传统士绅求“义”与商人求“利”的本质诉求,成为近代绅商始终需要面对的一大难题。大批绅商居士选择从结合中印传统的自利利他思想中攫取伦理资源,践行义利统一观念。他们不断淡化“以世俗利益度化众生”与“以超越功德度化众生生”及“践行儒家道义”与“践行释家义理”之间的区别,同时在现实与超越层面实现求“义”和求“利”的平衡统一。

There have been considerable discussions on profit and righteousness in traditional Chinese philosophy.In China ’s modern period,the increasingly accepted view that profit and righteousness are equally important promoted the successful integration between gentry class and merchant class.The newly-formed gentry-merchant class had to make a difficult choice between righteousness and profit which were the pursuit of gentry class and merchants respectively.Borrowing the Buddhism thought of self-benefiting altruism,they minimized the differences between the principles of Buddhism and Confucianism in an effort to strike a balance between righteousness and profit.