信仰、仪式与天人之际——董仲舒论祭礼

Faith,Rites and the Relationship between Heaven and Man

祭礼是传统中国信仰生活的核心承载形式,其政教效能为董仲舒所关注。郊祀在祭礼中地位最尊,是王朝政权合法性建构的重要途径。董仲舒极力论证郊祀绝不可废,认为《春秋》不因丧废郊,足见祭天的重要性超越一切现实政治事务,他更以周、秦二代兴衰之对比,将郊祀礼理解为子对父的孝道侍奉,在强调天之神圣权威的同时,将之纳入儒家之德行与教化理论系统,在人文理性的价值秩序中为其奠立必不可废的道义根基。董仲舒之宗庙四祭说代表汉儒对古传礼仪的典型诠释方案。其祭祀思想中最富于汉代思想特色者,是阴阳观念的大量运用。在董仲舒的理论体系中,贵阳贱阴与阴阳中和两种观念实并行不悖,这一点也成为汉以后中国哲学理解阴阳关系的主导模式。

Sacrificial rites are the core bearing form of traditional Chinese faith life,and its political and religious effectiveness is concerned by Dong Zhongshu.Offering sacrifices to heaven in the suburb occupies the highest position in the sacrificial rites and it is the most important way to construct the legitimacy of the regime.Dong Zhongshu strongly argued that sacrificial rites in the suburb should not be abandoned,and that it was advocated in The Spring and Autumn Annals that sacrificial rites in the suburb should not be abandoned for the sake of mourning,which shows that the importance of offering sacrifices to heaven is beyond all practical political affairs.He even compared the rise and fall of the Zhou and Qin dynasties,and considered sacrificial rites in the suburb to be the filial service of the son to the father.While emphasizing the sacred authority of heaven,he incorporated it into the theoretical system of Confucian virtue and education,laying an indispensable moral foundation for it in the value order of human rationality.Dong Zhongshu’s theory of four sacrifices in the ancestral temple represents a typical interpretation scheme of ancient rites by the Confucians in the Han Dynasty.The most characteristic of his sacrificial thoughts in the Han Dynasty is the extensive use of the concept of yin and yang.In his theoretical system,the concept of attaching importance to the sunny place and avoiding being in the shabby place goes together with the concept of the balanced harmony between yin and yang,which has become the dominant mode for Chinese philosophy to understand the relationship between yin and yang after the Han Dynasty.