卜辞所见商代宗教哲学中的“命”

The Concept of "Ming" in Shang Religious Philosophy as Seen from the Perspective of Ora-cle Bone Prognosticatory Inscriptions

殷墟卜辞中有“帝于令”,“令”指“天命”。卜辞中又有“受命”,即文献中所说的“正命”,或“考终命”。卜辞中有“不既赢”,“赢”读为“盈”,指乾阳之气,如同文献中所说的“休命”。《甲骨文合集》6928是一版武丁时代的龟腹甲,上有“帝命”,反映了古代天人相应的观念。

The expressions rendered in modern readings as di yu ling and ling that occur in oracle bone inscriptions from Yinxu are a reference to 'Tianming', generally translated in English as 'the Mandate of Heaven'. Paralleling this interpretation, the oracle bone expression 'shou ming' is what in transmitted documents is termed 'zhengming' or 'kao zhong ming', again referring to the concept of 'heavenly mandate'. The character 'ying' in the oracle bone formulation 'buji wang ying' is in fact a reference to the yang ( 'male') breath or spirit of the qian ( 'heaven') concept; so this oracle bone phrase is the equivalent of what transmitted documents term 'xiu ming', loosely equivalent perhaps to 'heavenly blessings'. Thus oracle bone 6928 in the comprehensive and definitive oracle bone inscription catalogue titled Jiaguwen heji is a document on a ventral tortoise shell from the period of the reign of King Wu Ding of the Shang dynasty that has direct bearing on the archaic concept of interaction and reciprocity between Heaven and Man.