孔孟老庄“乐”的思想意趣辨正

Distinguishing the Conception of “Happiness” among Confucius, Mencius and Lao Zi, Zhuang Zi

作为情感的乐是中国思想史中的重要概念,被先秦诸子尤其儒道两家赋予丰富内涵。孔子之乐有圣人气象,但并不是严肃、偏道德性的“乐道”,而是道、物、事、人兼有的庸常之乐,乐无所不在并与生命合为一体,可称之为“浑涵之乐”;孟子则将乐分为五个层次,以君民同乐最高,乐被赋予政治意涵,同时其道德性也凸显。此外,孟子性善论视域内,乐的形上意义被发掘并被统摄于善,有“乐善”之说,本质是性、情打通;老庄道家主虚静平淡而排斥情,故老子不言乐。不过庄子以乐发挥“逍遥游”之旨,乐得到新阐释。“天乐”“至乐”说,乐上升至天地境界,哲学性被提升至最高级。

As an emotion, “happiness” is a significant concept in the history of Chinese thoughts, which has been endowed with rich connotations by the pre-Qin scholars, especially the Confucianism and Taoism.The delight of Confucius showed the appearance of sages, but it is not “Take Delight in Tao”with serious and moralistic, but the ordinary happiness which contains in Tao, things, things and people,happiness is ubiquitous and integrated with life, which can be called the “Implicit Happiness”;On the other hand, Mencius divided delight into five levels, placing the delight both in the king and the populace in the highest position,happiness was endowed with political meaning, and its morality was also highlighted.In addition, in the visual angle of Mencius’ theory of original goodness of human nature,the metaphysical meaning of happiness is explored and controlled by goodness,there is a saying of “being glad to give to charities”, the essence of which is the integration of human nature and emotion;the representative figures of Taoism, Lao Zi, Zhuang Zi, both advocate emptiness and quietness,but reject emotions, so Lao Zi usually doesn’t talk about delight.However, Chuangtse gave play to the purpose of “Leisure Tour” with happiness, so happiness has been interpreted in a new way.In the theory of “Heavenly Pleasure” and “Extremely Happiness”, happiness has risen to the realm of heaven and earth, and its philosophical nature has been upgraded to the highest level.