王阳明“知是行之始,行是知之成”新诠

A New Interpretation of Wang Yangming’s Proposition “Knowledge Is the Initiation of Action and Action is the Manifestation of Knowledge”

“知行合一”是阳明学研究中引起较多讨论的一个问题。有的学者倾向于从“同质的时间差”的角度来理解阳明的知行关系,这一理解与对阳明“知是行之始,行是知之成”命题中“始”与“成”的诠释有密切关系,持这一观点的多数学者都倾向于将其解释为“开始”与“完成”,这样的话,知行之间存在极短的时间差就是很自然的事情。这种对“始”与“成”的理解是有问题的,而佐藤一斋的看法更有道理,他主张“始”与“成”应该被理解为“方始”和“作为”(或“表现”),在这种理解中,知行就是一种体用同时的关系,而不是先后关系。阳明上述命题中的“始”与“成”的用法,应该来自《易传》的“乾知大始,坤作成物”。因此,阳明的“知行合一”说与其易学思想有着密切的关系。在阳明的易学思想中,乾坤是体用同时的关系,由此可以推断,知行也是体用同时的关系,而不是时间先后关系。

“The unity of knowledge and action”(zhi xing he yi知行合一)is a subject which causes much discussion in research of Yangming learning.The key point lies in how the two concepts of of“initiation”(shi始)and“manifestation”(cheng成)in Yangming’s proposition that“knowledge is the initiation of action and the action is the manifestation of knowledge”(zhi shi xing zhi shi,xing shi zhi zhi cheng知是行之始,行是知之成)should be understood.Most scholars think they should be interpreted as“beginning”and“completion,”and that accordingly,there should exist an extremely short time gap between knowledge and action.This paper argues that this kind of understanding of these two concepts is problematic.In comparison to this,I agree with Sato Issai佐藤一斋,who insists that the two words mentioned above should be interpreted as“initiation”(fangshi方始)and“manifestation”(biaoxian表现).In this understanding,knowledge and action are two synchronic aspects of a single process,or put differently,they can be taken as substance and function.Furthermore,this paper points out that the two terms“initiation”and“manifestation”are adopted from the Book of Changes(Yizhuan易传),thus Yangming’s thought on the unity of knowledge and action is deeply connected with his thought on the Changes.Within his understanding of the Changes,Qian(乾)and Kun(坤)are substance and function.From this,we can confirm that knowledge and action are substance and function and that they are synchronic,without any time gap between them.