“脉”范畴的内涵演变及其生态哲学意蕴

The Evolving Connotation of the Category of“Vein”and Its Ecophilosophical Implications

“脉”范畴的内涵演变经历了一个不断扩充的过程。“脉”最初是指血管,又被用来指代身体,后被引申为血缘、血脉。因“脉”具有连贯而自成体系的特点,古人将它与自然现象类比,用以描述山川河流等宏观的自然地理形势,由此产生了“水脉”“山脉”“土脉”“地脉”等概念,“脉”范畴被赋予了生态意蕴。由于“地脉”“民命”与国家存亡发展紧密相关,“脉”范畴由此衍生出“命脉”“国脉”“龙脉”等国家治理的意蕴。国家治理的经验智慧被总结为“文脉”与“道脉”,“脉”范畴相应地又发展出道学的意蕴。在今天,“脉”范畴被广泛运用于不同领域,甚至被用来说明自然科学和人文社会科学的重要理论,在知识论与博物学层面具有了方法论的意蕴。“脉”范畴多重意蕴之间的逻辑关联,关键在于其生态意蕴,这也符合古人根据“天人合一”理念从事政治、经济、文化与认知等各项活动的特点。

The connotation of the category of“vein”has gone through a continuous process of expansion.With its initial meaning of blood vessels,“vein”was used to refer to the body and then to kinship or blood relations.Due to its characteristics of being coherent and establishing its own system,“vein”was taken as an analogy in ancient times with natural phenomena and applied in the description of macro geological landscapes such as mountains and rivers.Hence the concepts of“water vein”,“mountain vein”,“earth vein”,“land vein”,and so on.The category of“vein”was thus endowed with the ecological implication.Furthermore,because“land vein”and the fate of people were closely connected with the survival of the nation,the category of“vein”was enriched by concepts about national governance such as“fate vein”,“country vein”,“sovereignty vein”,etc.When the experience and wisdom of national governance were summarized as“cultural vein”and“philosophical vein”,the category of“vein”developed its philosophical implication.Today,“vein”is widely applied in various fields,even in explaining the important theories in both natural science and humanities and social sciences.In this way,it is given the methodological implication from the perspective of the theory of knowledge and natural history.The ecological implication is the core of the logical correlation among the multiple implications of the category of“vein”,which aligns with the practice that ancient people carried out political,economic,cultural and cognitive activities by following the idea that“heaven and man are united as one”.