希圣与尊经——扬雄和刘歆的“复古”路径及其脉络辨析

Imitating Sages and Respecting Classics:An Analysis of the Retro Way by Yang Xiong and Liu Xin and the Context

扬雄和刘歆可谓经学发展史上节点式的人物,面对西汉末年博士经学的颓态,他们希望通过“复古”回到儒学最初的根本,然取径相异:扬雄缵绪圣人之所为,广圣道、拟众经;刘歆则在汉代官方立学原则的基础上,试图通过广学、正经、诂经来变革利禄之学的衰局。纵览儒学在秦汉时期的发展,可知扬雄希圣拟经的行为实际上同儒学“博采诸学,折中于一”的子学自新精神一脉相承,与司马迁和董仲舒可归为一类,在西汉儒学中自有其位置;刘歆其人其学仍在西汉今文经学统序之中,其援古济今的经学革新努力虽然是中央官学内部的调整,但将儒生的视线从固化了的师法转移回了经典文本之上,有意无意间导引了训经诂圣的后汉经学路径。

Yang Xiong and Liu Xin can be described as two milestones in the history of studies of Confucian classics.In the face of the decadence of the studies of Five Classics,they expected to return to the original foundation of Confucianism by a retro way,yet taking different approaches.Yang Xiong inherited the sage's actions,spreading Confucius'doctrine and imitating Confucius'classics;while Liu Xin tried to turn the declining state by extending,correcting,and annotating the classics on the basis of official school.Throughout the evolution of Confucianism in the Qin-Han period,it can be said that comparable to Sima Qian and Dong Zhongshu,Yang Xiong followed the self-renewal spirit of Confucianism;and Liu Xin remained the academic context of modern scripts of Confucian classics in the Western Han.Although his“innovation”only meant adjustment within the central official school,such effort diverted the attention of Confucian scholars from rigid teachings back to the classical text,which somehow guided the exegetic orientation of Confucian classics in the Eastern Han.