荀子君子人格探析——兼谈孔、孟、荀君子之道的相异互补

A Probe into the Gentleman Theory of Xunzi—On the Differences and Complementarities of the Gentleman’s Tao among Confucius, Mencius and Xunzi

先秦儒家讲君子,以“道”为核心:孔子提出君子“谋道不谋食”,孟子注重“道”之道德超越性,而荀子以“天道”为客观自然,认为君子所志之道乃“人道”,因而在君子人格修养上荀子更加重视后天的化性起伪和礼法规范,在君子入仕上更突出君子的政治参与感。文章以“道”观君子,从君子“壹于道”(谋道)、“审于礼”(修道)、“理天下”(弘道)三方面解读荀子的君子论,提出荀子的君子人格以礼法人道为核心,以礼义积伪为操术,以正理平治为指向的观点,并通过分析孔孟荀君子之道的相异互补,探究荀子的君子人格在谋道、修道、弘道上的独特性。

Confucianism in the pre-Qin dynasty emphasizes the gentleman (Junzi) and takes “Tao” as the core of the gentleman: Confucius advocated that the gentleman seeks his “Tao” but not his subsistence;Mencius paid attention to the moral transcendence of “Tao”. Xunzi regarded “heavenly heaven” as nature and believed that the gentleman should dedicate to the “Tao” of humanity. So he attached much importance to acquired learning and the code of ceremonial (Li) when it spoke to the gentleman. Besides, Xunzi thinks that gentleman should keep a kind of more proactive political attitude. Based on Xunzi’s theory of gentleman, this article takes the gentleman’s “Tao” as the clue and interprets Xunzi’s gentleman theory from three aspects: “The Gentleman Who is Dedicated to the Tao” (Seeking the Tao), “The Gentleman’s Mastery of Tao” (The way to seek Tao) and “The Gentleman Governs the Country” (carry forward the Tao). This article argues that Xunzi’s gentleman theory takes the Tao of Humanity and ceremonial as the core, takes the accumulation of the etiquette system as the measure, and takes the political function as orientation. And through the analysis of the differences and complementarities of the gentleman’s Tao among Confucius, Mencius and Xunzi, we can find the uniqueness of the gentleman’s personality in Xunzi’s thoughts.