墨家与尧舜禅让古史关系辨正

Rectifying the Relationship between Mohism and Legend on Yao and Shun’s Abdication

顾颉刚20世纪30年代提出“禅让传说起于墨家”的观点,引起学界对墨家与尧舜禅让古史关系的争论。从《墨子》文本看,凡是关于尧舜禅让的论述,都是用来佐证打破身份血统限制、从百姓中选用贤人的尚贤主张。将尚贤与尚同思想结合起来,可以逻辑地推出权力应该禅让的结论,但尚同思想表达的实质乃是实现意见统一、上下通情和政令畅通,并非专门对权力禅让的论述。就墨家与尧舜禅让古史关系而言,墨家大量征引作为历史资源的尧舜禅让事迹,只是将其作为一个尚贤的典范,其意义在于佐证尚贤主张的权威性。

Gu Jiegang proposed the viewpoint in the 1930s that the legend of abdication originated from the Mohist school,which sparked a debate in the academic community about the relationship between the Mohist school and the ancient history of abdication of Yao and Shun.From the text of Mozi,it can be seen that any discourse on the abdication of Yao and Shun is used to support the advocacy of breaking the limitations of identity and bloodline and selecting the virtuous and capable from the ordinary people.By combining the ideas of valuing the virtuous and capable and valuing the idea of uniformity,a logical conclusion can be drawn that power should be abdicated.However,the essence of the latter is to achieve unity of opinions,communication between upper and lower levels,and smooth governance,rather than a specific discourse on the transmission of power abdication.Therefore,the Mohist school’s practice of citing extensively the abdication of Yao and Shun as historical resources can be explained in this way:as a model of valuing the virtuous and capable.It serves as a proof to support the authority of this advocacy.