论“己所不欲,勿施于人”的初始涵义和实践困境

The Golden Rule“Don't Do to Others What you Do Not Want Them to Do to You”:Its Meaning and Difficulties in Practice

孔子“己所不欲,勿施于人”的初始涵义,在于自我限定,避免强人所难,从而达到心灵上的宁静。证之以庄子对“推己及人”及“仁义”的批判和对“至仁无亲”的描述,更说明孔子追求的是“心安”,而不是利益的交换。据此可知,康德、叔本华、尼采和俞吾金等人站在近代个体意识高涨、人己对立的契约原则上批判这个命题,忽略了孔子重视“心安”、轻视功利的初衷。但是,既然该命题将人己对立起来,必然导致人们从互惠的或契约的角度理解它,这就导致它的实践困境:首先,“己所不欲,勿施于人”存在一个“自己当下所行”与“自己对他人的期望”之间的时间差,即我所做的,不会立即得到回报,甚至永远不会得到回报,于是一些人便不愿遵守;其次,这种功利的解析又必然与该命题所包含的感性成分发生冲突,使人们徘徊于理性与情感之间,使该命题难以得到很好的贯彻。

When Confucius proposed the Golden Rule“don't do to others what you do not want them to do to you”,he aimed to achieve the peace of mind through restraining oneself and avoiding coercing others.He was concerned more about the harmony of human relationship instead of mutual benefit.This can be verified by Zhuangzi's criticism of benevolence and righteousness as well as Zhuangzi's description of the perfect benevolence which transcends partiality.As a result,it will be easy to find that Kant,Schopenhauer,Nietzsche,and Yu Wujin ignored Confucius'emphasis on the peace of mind and disdain on the gain of interest when they criticized the Golden Rule from the perspective of individuality and social contract.However,since the Golden Rule sets self against others,it will inevitably be interpreted based on mutual benefit and contract,which incurs the difficulties when practicing it.First,The Golden Rule presupposes a time lag between what one is doing and what one expects:What one is doing will get no immediate reward or perhaps no reward.Then many people will not be willing to abide by it.Second,the interpretation based on mutual benefit and contract also neglects the element of emotion that the Golden Rule is concerned about.As people always wander between reason and emotion,the practice of the Golden Rule will not be consistently carried out either.