慎独中无法摆脱的“自欺阴影”——从朱熹《大学章句集注》的阐释出发

The "Shadow of Self-Deception" That Cannot Be Shaken off in Restraining in Privacy——taking the text of Zhu Xi’s Collection of Commentaries on the Chapter and Sentences of The Great Learning as the core

“慎独”与“自欺”是中国传统思想当中的重要概念。《大学》文本通过描绘一个小人与君子相遇的故事,来说明“慎独”与“自欺”的关系。历代注经家对此都有自己的见解,其中最重要的是朱熹的以“知”解“独”说。从朱熹《大学章句集注》的理解出发,可以解读出小人在遇到君子之前、遇到君子之时和对于“诚”状态的忽视而发生的三处自欺。故事在旁观者对于小人的共情当中结束。由于共情的发生机制,“慎独”作为一种工夫论具有了普遍性,同时也预示了第四处自欺的出现。面对难以摆脱的自欺状态,慎独的意义就在于直面自欺的现状并始终承认人处于“不诚”的可能之中。

"Restraining in privacy" and "self-deception" are important issues in Chinese traditional thought. When explaining the relationship between "self-deception" and "restraining in privacy", the text of The Great Learning depicts a story of a gentleman meeting a villain. Successive commentators on the scriptures have had their own opinions on this, the most important of which is Zhu Xi’s "knowledge" to explain the "privacy". From the understanding of Zhu Xi’s Collection of Commentaries on the Chapter and Sentences of The Great Learning, people can interpret a total of three self-deceptions of the villain before he meets the gentleman, when he meets the gentleman, and when he neglects the state of "sincerity". The story ends with the empathy of the bystanders for the villain. Because of the mechanism of empathy, "restraining in privacy" as a work theory has become universal, and it also foreshadows the emergence of the fourth self-deception. In the face of self-deception that is hard to shake off, the significance of restraining in privacy lies in facing the current situation of self-deception and always admitting that people are in the possibility of "dishonesty".