被主流遮蔽的儒家经学特质:西学与郑玄的启示

A Characteristic Obscured by Mainstream Confucian Classics Study:The Enlightenment of Western Learning and Zheng Xuan

有两种现象可以解释儒家经学的本质特征:其一为西学在晚清经学解读中的运用,另一则是郑玄的经典解释的独特性。清末西学进入中国,出现了以西学比附经学的现象。尽管现在对此评价不高,但这种现象说明经书本身就具有易于以西学附会的特质,正是由于有这种特质,才会有后来将西方思想和制度的概念继续引入中国经学解读中的做法。郑玄的注释一直倍受学者重视,但他的解经理念与后世存在重大不同:后世学者以经书为材料,重要的是理解背后现实的思想体制;郑玄则专注研究经学文本,而非社会现实。郑玄从字里行间解读经文的终点是后世学者重建现实理论体系的起点,这也是郑注虽被公认权威、却屡遭误解忽视的原因。在郑玄与晚清经学之间,中国传统的主流经学是由对政治和现实有着浓厚兴趣的官僚知识分子来承载的。郑玄专注经书文本与晚清经学运用西学,这是两个存在于主流经学之外特例,但却能从侧面揭示中国经学的本质特征。

Two phenomena can explain the essential characteristic of Confucian classics:one is the application of Western learning in interpreting Chinese classics in the late Qing Dynasty,and the other is the uniqueness of Zheng Xuan's exegesis.The introduction of Western scholarship to China in the late Qing led to the phenomenon of adducing Western concepts to explain Chinese classics.Although it is not highly regarded at present,this phenomenon suggests that the Confucian classics themselves possessed qualities suited to discussing commonalities with Western concepts,and it was these qualities that led to the later practice of continuously introducing concepts of Western thought and institutions into the interpretation of Chinese classics.Zheng Xuan's exegesis has always been valued by scholars,but his philosophy of classics interpretation differs significantly from that of later scholars:whereas later scholars used the classics as material and attached more importance to the real thoughts and institutions behind the classics,Zheng Xuan concentrated on the study of the classics texts rather than the social reality.The endpoint of Zheng Xuan's interpretation from the lines was the starting point for later scholars to reconstruct a theoretical system of reality,which is also the reason why Zheng's exegesis,although recognized as an authoritative version,was repeatedly misunderstood and ignored.From the time after Zheng Xuan until the late Qing Dynasty when Western concepts were introduced,the mainstream of traditional Chinese classics studies was carried by bureaucratic intellectuals with a keen interest in politics and reality.Zheng Xuan's focus on the text of the classics and the application of Western learning in late-Qing exegesis are two exceptions that exist outside of mainstream classics studies.Still,they shed light on the essential characteristic of Chinese classics studies.