“直道”与“曲笔”:朱子《春秋》学基本精神探微

“Explicit Way”and“Veiled Writing”:The Fundamental Spirit of Zhu Xi’s Thoughts on Spring and Autumn Annals

朱子于《春秋》未尝有专著问世,然朱子《春秋》学实存在非常丰富的内容,且无不吻合于其理学的基本精神。简而言之,朱子将《春秋》理解为孔子“圣人之心”的自然流露,相比于后世学者以“微言大义”“一字褒贬”论《春秋》,孔子《春秋》的基本精神在于“但据直书而善恶自著”——圣人与学者之间存在着“直道”与“曲笔”的基本分别。由此,朱子主张以一种直截了当的态度去体认圣人《春秋》“诛乱臣,讨贼子,内中国,外夷狄,贵王贱伯”的宗旨,而反对通过前代学者的“条例”之学“委曲”地理解《春秋》之义。

Zhu Xi did not write any monographs about Spring and Autumn Annals,while he truly had profound thoughts on this book,which can express his spirits on Neo-Confucianism’s philosophy.Briefly,in Zhu Xi’s viewpoint,Spring and Autumn Annals naturally reflected Confucius’mind.Zhu Xi held the view that the basic spirit of Confucius was to express the principles of the good and the evil directly when writing Spring and Autumn Annals,while Confucian scholars of latter generations often commented on Confucius’Spring and Autumn Annals with expressions like“using sublime words to imply deep meanings”or“praising or criticizing with a single word”.This kind of difference can be called“Explicit Way”and“Veiled Writing”between Sage and other Confucian scholars.Therefore,Zhu Xi claimed that people should understand the purpose of Spring and Autumn Annals with a straightforward attitude instead of misunderstanding the meanings of Spring and Autumn Annals through the“Regulations”established by previous scholars.