中晚明阳明学的格物之辩

The Debate about the Concept of Investigating Things of Wang Yangming's Leaming in the Mid - late Ming

对《大学》中“格物”观念的不同理解与诠释,可以反映朱子学与阳明学这理学传统两大典范的基本差异。但中晚明阳明学“格物”观念的发展却呈现出较为复杂的面貌。由中晚明不同阳明学者的格物之辩可见,中晚明阳明学的“格物”观表现为两种不同的取向。一种以聂双江、王宗沐、王艮以及刘蕺山等人为代表,将“格物”完全收缩到自我意识的领域,不免取消了“格物”这一经典用语本身所具有的面对客观事物的致思方向。另一种以王龙溪、周海门、欧阳南野、王塘南等人为代表,通过将“物”理解为意向性中的对象或者作为各种实际生活行为的“事”,使“格物”工夫不再是一种单纯自我意识的孤立活动,而是展开于自我与外界事物的关系结构与互动过程。在后者看来,如果说朱子学的“格物”“忘内求外”而不免“逐物”的话,前者则又“务内遗外”而不免“绝物”。作为一种既不“逐物”又不“绝物”的“合内外”工夫,后者其实是阳明晚年成熟“格物”思想的继承和发扬,反映了阳明学在与朱子学互动过程中由反对到吸收的动向。并且,这一动向在中晚明一些朱子学者的“格物”观处也有鲜明的体现。

Different understandings and interpretations of the concept of investigating things reflected basic difference of learning of Zhuxi and learning of Wang Yangming as two paradigms in Neo - Confucian tradition. But the development of the concept of investigating things in Wang Yangming's learning in the mid - late Ming took a complicated look. Observing the debate about the concept of investigating things, we can find two orientations about the concept of investigating things. One was presented by Nie Shuangjiang, Wang Zongmu, Wang Gen and Liu Jishan, which made investigating things almost completely in the area of consciousness, and ignored the direction of facing objectives unavoidably. The other was presented by Wang Longxi, Zhou Haimen, Ou ?Yang Nanye and Wang Tangnan, which made investigating things not a pure consciouseness activity but developing in the relational structure and interaction process between self and the things and events outside, by defining things as objectives in the intentionality or various events in the life world. For the later orientation, the former orientation forgot and kept from the outside while the learning of Zhuxi forgot and kept from the inside. As a method of investigating things which balanced between the outside and the inside and actually development of the mature thought of Wang Yangming in his old age, the later orientation revealed the dynamics of the change from reaction to absorption in the process of the interaction between the learning of Wang Yangming and Zhuxi.