特性、共性与自性——试论《公孙龙子·坚白论》的“性质”三义

On the Three Aspects of“Nature”in On Hardness and Whiteness by Master Gongsun Long

在近代以来形成的“以西释中”主流研究范式影响下,中国古代的公孙龙往往被研究者描绘成为西方意义的哲学家、逻辑学家,作为公孙龙思想代表作的《坚白论》,其主旨到底何在,在以往众多的研究成果中并未达成共识。依据《名实论》的“正名”理论,在《坚白论》中,坚、白代表性质意义的“实”;坚、白所处的“定”“兼”“藏”三种样态即是性质的三种“位”;与之对应的三种“物(天地与其所产)”的存在形态就是石、物(物兼之万物)、坚白自身;整个主宾辩难的论证过程就是在进行“位其所位”的“正名”行动。不依傍后来西学现存理论,主要参考宋人谢希深的注解,回到战国时期“名实之辩”的语境中,研究发现《坚白论》的主旨就是:通过坚、白两种性质在“定”“兼”“藏”三种“位”中的“正名”分析,揭示事物“性质(实)”的三种不同涵义:石之坚、白特性;物之坚、白共性;离之坚、白自性。同时,“性质”三义也可以视为“性质语词”的三种用法。

Under the influence of the modern mainstream approach to“interpreting Chinese materials from Western perspectives”,Gongsun Long,a 3rd-to 4th-century(BC)Chinese thinker,has often been presented as a philosopher or logician in a Western sense.A closer look into Gongsun's representative work On Hardness and Whiteness,however,disputes this reading on the ground that the method of his argumentation clearly reflects the“name-substance”(ming-shi)debate of the Warring States Period in Chinese history.More specifically,according to the theory of“rectification of names”as expounded in his On Names and Substance,the hardness and whiteness of a stone in the treatise On Hardness and Whiteness constitute its nature or“substance”,the“fixed”(ding),“fluid”(jian)and“hidden”(cang)modes of hardness and whiteness represent the three“ways of interrelation”in which the nature or“substance”of the stone manifests itself,and in correspondence to these three modes are three kinds of matter,namely,stone as a particular form of matter,matter in general and the hardness and whiteness as abstracted from any form of matter.In other words,his argumentation method of Gongshun reflects a traditional Chinese debating style that aims to“rectify names”by“locating a matter in its proper position of interrelation”(wei qi suo wei)in which nature or“substance”manifests itself.In short,this paper seeks,drawing primarily on the Song Dynasty commentary by Xie Xishen,to counter the current Western reading of Gongsun Long in a case study of his On Hardness and Whiteness.In doing so,it argues that the treatise,with its“rectification of names”analysis of the“fixed”,“fluid”and“hidden”modes of the“hardness”and“whiteness”,uncovers three different aspects of nature or“substance”,namely,the characteristics of hardness and whiteness specific to a stone(i.e.,particularity),the hardness and whiteness in all forms of matter(i.e.,commonality),and the hardness and whiteness themselves,independent of any concrete form of matter(i.e.,self-nature).