王阳明与传统儒家思想的终结

Wang Yangming and the Finality of Traditional Confucianism

天人之辨是儒家学说的主要问题。早期儒家孔子主张敬鬼神而远之,开辟了儒家重人间、强人文的方向,孟、荀随之。汉儒通过人副天数,将人与仁道提高到与天相近的高度。魏晋儒家倡导天人一体。宋儒在接受了天人一体观的同时,提出人与仁才是天地之心、宇宙的主宰者,并从思辨哲学的角度予以论证。至此,人类在宇宙中的地位达到了极致。这种人类地位的极致化同时意味着人文之路尽头的到来,即传统儒家思想的终结。明末至清代思想要么照着讲,鲜有创新;要么开始转换话题,这也间接证明了儒家传统话题与思想的终结。

The relation between Heaven and Man had been the main issue of Confucianism. Confucius proposed a respectful distance with the spirits, which opened a direction that valuing the world and emphasizing humanity. Mencius and Xunzi followed his way. The Confucians in the Han dynasty raised Man and Dao of benevolence to the level close to Heaven by the theory that “humanity should be aligned with nature” put forward by Dong Zhongshu. The Confucians in the Wei-Jin period advocated the unity of Heaven and Man. While the Song Confucians accepted such idea, they stated that Man and benevolence is the core of Heaven and Earth, and gave argumentations in the perspective of speculative philosophy. Till then, the position of mankind in universe had reached an extreme, which also meant the end of the humanistic way, i.e., the finality of traditional Confucianism. The thoughts in the late Ming and Qing period either followed such statements with little innovation, or started to change the subject. That also indirectly proved the finality of traditional Confucian subjects and thoughts.