从“上下通”释“德”之本义

Interpreting the Original Meaning of“De”(德)from“Shang Xia Tong”(上下通)

“■”字出现在甲骨文和西周初期以前的金文中,可隶定为■,其本义为“视道而直行”,引申为“省察”“巡视”;西周初年随着“天命有德”观念的出现,周人借形赋义,又为“■”赋予了“在大地中央省察天意并有所领会”的含义,等于创造了一个新字,可以隶定为“徝”。省、直古音相近,故可相互通用。上古时期,上天是人间意义的最重要来源,很多核心观念与词汇都与交通天人的“上下通”有关,周人以“根据上天之意行事”为有“德”,而按照上天的意愿做事,怎么做是通过心来把握的,所以在“徝”的基础上增加了“心”符成为“德”字,强调对上天之意的领会。

The character"■"appeared in the oracle bones script and bronze inscription before the early Western Zhou Dynasty,which can be called a defined character"■",its original meaning is"observing the path and walking the path",which can be further explained as"critical inspection"and"inspection tour".At the beginning of the Western Zhou Dynasty,with the emergence of the concept of"the mandate of heaven empowered the virtuous with the right to rule"(天命有德),the people of the Zhou Dynasty gave"■"the meaning of“observing Heaven's will at the center of the Earth and realizing it".From this point of view,essentially a new character was created and defined as the character of"Zhi(徝)"."Xing(省)"and"Zhi(直)"have similar ancient pronunciations,so they can be used interchangeably.In ancient times,Heaven was the most important source meaning in the world.Many core concepts and vocabulary were related to the"Shang Xia Tong"(上下通),which reflected the communication between heaven and humanity.The Zhou people believed that"acting according to the will of Heaven"was integral to having virtue,referred to as"De"(德),and how to do things according to the will of heaven was determined by one's heart.Therefore,"the heart"、referred to as the"Xin(心)"component was added to"Zhi(徝)”which formed the character"De"(德),which emphasized the understanding and meaning of following the will of Heaven.