《春秋》“序辞”的微言大义——董仲舒对《春秋》《公羊传》的诠释

The Order of Words in The Spring and Autumn Annals Has Sublime Words with Deep Meaning —— Dong Zhongshu's Interpretation of The Spring and Autumn Annals and The Gongyang Biography

《公羊传》是解释《春秋》之作,是春秋公羊学的开端。《公羊传》以义传经,主要通过书法或笔法,以阐发圣人的微言大义。“书法”,即《春秋》记事的一般法则,其内容主要表现在书与不书、称谓、用词、时月日录、地录等方面,其基本特征是曲折深微。“序辞”,即辞序或词序,是词在词组或句子结构中的先后顺序。《公羊传》认为,序辞是《春秋》书法之一,有微言大义。董仲舒是西汉公羊学的大师,在解释《春秋》《公羊传》时,一方面明确地概括出“序辞”的观念,且把序辞作为《春秋》正名的重要内容;另一方面,在继承《公羊传》的基础上推见至隐,曲折幽深地阐释序辞的微言大义;再一方面,通过《春秋》序辞的书法而创造性地建构出天人之道,所谓“天之道,有序而时”。公羊学家所阐释序辞的意义即微言大义,与序辞的通常意义即常言常义有重大的间距,这有利于公羊学家发挥其主观思想以填补意义间距的空间。

The Gongyang Biography is a work of explaining the Spring and Autumn Annals,and it is the beginning of the Gongyang studies.The Gongyang Biography transmits the scriptures with righteousness,mainly through methods of writing,in order to expound the sage's sublime words with deep meaning.The methods of writing that is,the general rules of recording things in the Spring and Autumn Annals.Its contents are mainly manifested in the aspects of record or not record of something,titles of persons,uses of words,time and place records,etc.Its basic characteristics are euphemistic and deep.The order of words,that is,the sequence of words in a phrase or sentence structure.According to the Gongyang Biography,the order of words is one of methods of writing in the Spring and Autumn Annals,which has sublime words with deep meaning.Dong Zhongshu was a master of the Gongyang studies.On the one hand,he clearly summarized the concept of the order of words and took it as the important content of the name correction of the Spring and Autumn Annals when explaining the Gongyang Biography.On the other hand,on the basis of inheriting the Gongyang Biography,he elucidated sublime words with deep meaning of the order of words.On the other hand,through the order of words he constructed the way of heaven and man,the socalled “the way of heaven,orderly and timely”.There is a significant gap between the meaning of the order of words and the common meaning of the order of words interpreted by the scholars who studies the Gongyang Biography,which is conducive to the scholars subjective thoughts to fill the space between meanings.