天道与礼乐:论汉代经学“中和”观念的秩序特征

The Way of Nature and Rites-Music:On the Orderly Characteristics of the Concept of“Neutrality and Harmony”in the Han Dynasty’s Confucianism

“中和”是《中庸》核心观念之一,在汉代经学中,“中和”观念的内涵从两个方向展开,其一是天道论的方向,汉儒董仲舒通过天道运行规律构建出以“中和”为终极标准的天道秩序;其二是礼乐论的方向,通过礼乐对人性的教化,最终达到以“中和”为理想的政治秩序。由此,在汉代,“中和”指向一个贯穿天人的宇宙终极秩序。不过,这一“中和”观念始终具有客观化与外在化的倾向,与宋明理学以主体道德的完成而实现的天人合一之“中和”境界具有主客观的差别。

The concept of“neutrality and harmony”was unfolded in two directions in the Han Dynasty.First,the concept was used as an eternal order of nature,which was the Han Confucian scholar Dong Zhongshu who constructed it with the theory of Five Elements and the operation of nature.Second,the concept was used in the Rites-Music culture in the Han Dynasty,which aimed to educate human nature to be neutral and harmony,so then drove the country to achieve the ideal political order.Thus,“neutrality and harmony”pointed to an ultimate order of the universe that runs through nature and man.This meaning of the concept was changed in the Neo-Confucianism in the Song and Ming dynasties to point to the subject's morality,which was different from the meaning of the tendency of objectification and externalization in the Han Dynasty’s Confucianism.