早期朱子学派对至善的诠释

Early Zhuzi School's Interpretation of the Supreme Good

至善出自《礼记·大学》,汉唐对此并无过多关注,而自唐韩愈引作经世思想之后,迅速成为儒家核心思想之一。宋代周敦颐提出“纯粹至善”,二程也进一步有此感叹,认为“天理精微即为至善”,其后朱子总结“天理之极致为至善”,认为至善是一种人生状态,人们常驻这种至善状态时,也就是最完美的人,他将至善从“纯粹至善”的价值观扩展到天理人欲,认为完美的人应该“存天理、去人欲”。他的两位弟子陈淳和黄榦继承了他的观点。黄榦认为人的本性纯粹至善,后天就是要通过学习并恢复本然天性。陈淳更加注重字义的辨析讨论,认为性善是圣人承天立极的指归。至善思想对宋明士人产生了深刻影响,而后世中国也受到了这种影响,认为至善既是一种道德标准,也是个人修养的体现,赋予了现代中国人优秀的精神品格。

"Zhishan"(the Supreme Good),existing in Daxue of Liji,did not gain much attention in Han and Tang dynasties,but it became one of the core thoughts of Confucianism as soon as Han Yu in the Tang dynasty cited it as the thought of classics.Zhou Dunyi in Song dynasty came up with"chuncui zhishan"(Pure Good),then Cheng Yi and Cheng Hao said:"The profound natural-principle is the Supreme Good."then Zhu Xi summarized that"the acme of natural-principle is good",and described it as a state of life,in which people live as the most perfect man.He expanded the"Supreme Good"from the"Pure Supreme Good"to the natural-principle and human desires,and the perfect person should be the one who preserve the heavenly principle and deny human desires,which was inherited by Zhu Xi's two followers:Chen Chun and Huang Gan.Huang Gan believed that human nature is pure good and perfect,and what people need to do is to learn and recover the human nature that they are born with.Chen Chun paid more attention to the discrimination and discussion of the literal meaning,and believed that good nature was the purpose of the sage to inherit heaven and establish the pole.The idea of the Supreme Good had a profound influence on the scholars of Song and Ming dynasties and the later generations of China.It was believed that the Supreme Good was not only a moral standard,but also the embodiment of personal cultivation,which endowed the modern Chinese with excellent spiritual character.