由文化的到政治的──略论孔、荀礼乐观念的变化

“礼乐”是儒家传统文化的核心。通过周公制和作乐建立起来的贵族行为准则和政治统治秩序为数百年后的孔子带来了无限的眷恋和执着的追求。孔子无疑是想以周代的礼乐制度为典范重振王道礼乐秩序并成为这种“重振”的策划者,其政治用意是不容否认的,但孔子的实践与言论明显表现出一种文化关怀的倾向,这种文化关怀的精神对后学的影响是不容忽视的。而又过了大约２００年,孔门后学荀子重提礼乐的核心意义,却明显淡化了那种文化关怀的倾向而构筑成一种赤裸裸的社会控制的强权理论。

From Cultural to Political--An Overview of the Changes in Confucius and Xunzi' s Concepts of Ritual and Music

Ritual and music" is the nucleus of traditional culture. The nobility's code of conduct and political ruling order established in Zhou Gong's ritual setting and music making created unbounded nostalgia and persistent pursuit for Confucius hundreds of years after. It is doubtless that Confucius wanted to use the systems of rituals and music of the Zhou Dynasty as a model to revive the benevolent government order of rituals and music and to become the planner of this "revival". His political intentions cannot be denied, yet Confucius' practice and sayings explicitly demonstrated a kind of tendency of cultural solicitude. The influence of this cultural solicitude on later studies cannot be ignored. Approximately 200 years afterwards, a follower of the Confucian school, Xunzi, brought up the nuclear significance of rituals and music, but obviously weakened the tendency of the cultural solicitude and thus constituted a unadorned power politics theory of social control.