以三为纪:《论语》表述单元的形态、思维、逻辑和结构

Take Three as the Principle:The Form,Thinking,Logic,and Structure of the Expression Unit in the Analects

《论语》以三为纪表述单元,以章为基本单位,每章三节。它的形态有纯粹型与错杂型之分,显豁型与隐晦型之别,整齐型与非均衡型之异,简约型与舒张型之变。其思维方式和逻辑运演,或是以三为度进行切分,或是以三为满单项叠加,或是去多选三,或是三与三相偶,或是叩其两端,允执其中。这种表述单元,有的形式结构呈平列状,而意义结构纵向延伸。有的形式结构顺承,而意义结构逆接。以三为纪表述单元是多种因素的有机结合,与《系辞》物相杂以成文的命题相合,有重要的文章价值。它的逻辑运演有规则可寻,体现出在有限表述空间中对方圆规矩的熟练调遣。

In the Analects,three is the basic unit of expression,that is,chapter is the basic unit and each chapter has three sections.These writing structures can be distinguished as pure type and mixed type,obvious type and obscure type,neat type and unbalanced type,simple type and extensive type.The mode of thinking and logic shown by the structures is either to divide the sentence-group composed of multiple sentences into three units or to combine many short sentences with a group of three sentences as a complete mode,or to remove the superfluous expression items and choose three of them or to match the three items with the other three items or to sincerely adhere to the golden mean and deliberate on the two extreme states.Some of the formal structures of this kind of expression units are parallel while their meaning structures are longitudinal extensions.Some formal structures are sequential,while the meaning structures are reversed.The expression unit based on three is an organic combination of various factors,which is consistent with the proposition in Hsi Tzu,the documents explaining the Book of Change that is,a variety of things are mixed to form a beautiful texture so it has important literary value.The rules of its logical operation can be found,which reflects people's skilful manipulation of syntactic rules in the limited expression space.