孔孟儒学核心“仁”义探源

The Origin of the Core Word “Benevolence” in Confucianism of Confucius and Mencius

汉字作为世界上唯一一种创造以来一直使用的书写符号,既是中华文化传承的载体,自身的表意性又保存了汉民族的许多历史与文化信息。可以说,汉字不仅是中华民族的文化基因,更是早已成为解读历史文献的津梁和探索华夏文明的活化石。战国楚简中“仁”写作“■”“■”“■”,通过对这些字体结构的解析,证明了“仁”的核心要素就是“爱”,意义范畴就是“人”。以此为根基,孔子开创了以“仁”为核心的人学思想,建构起“爱人及物”的儒学体系,为人类的自身发展确立了完美的人格标准,体现了以人为本的人道主义精神。利用出土文字材料对孔孟儒学中的核心“仁”的构形理据及其形义演变进行梳理,从文字发生学的角度来探究先秦儒家仁学思想的核心内涵、理论建构和价值取向。

As the only writing symbol in the world that has been used since its creation,Chinese Characters are not only the carrier of Chinese Cultural Inheritance,but also preserve many historical and cultural information of the Han Nation.It can be said that Chinese characters are not only the cultural gene of the Chinese Nation,but also the living fossil of interpreting historical documents and exploring Chinese civilization.“仁”in Chu Bamboo Slips in the Warring States period is written as“■”,“■”and“■”.Through the analysis of these font structures,it is proved that the core element of“仁”is“爱”and the meaning category is“人”.On this basis,Confucius created a humanistic thought with“仁”as the core,constructed a Confucian system of“爱人及物”,established a perfect personality standard for human self-development,and embodied the humanist spirit of people-oriented.Using the unearthed writing materials,this paper combs the structural motivation and the evolution of the form and meaning of the core“仁”in Confucius and Mencius Confucianism,and explores the core connotation,theoretical construction and universal value of the Pre-Qin Confucian benevolence thought from the perspective of philology.