华东师范大学学报(哲学社会科学版) ›› 2021, Vol. 53 ›› Issue (3): 59-66.doi: 10.16382/j.cnki.1000-5579.2021.03.005

• 哲学与文化 • 上一篇    下一篇

上下与方圆:早期天地观念的空间意象及其德性意义

翟奎凤   

  • 出版日期:2021-05-15 发布日期:2021-05-24
  • 作者简介:翟奎凤,山东大学儒家文明省部共建协同创新中心研究员、儒学高等研究院教授(济南,250100)
  • 基金资助:
    中央高校基本科研业务费专项资金资助,山东省泰山学者专项经费项目

Upper-lower and Square-round:The Spatial Images and Their Virtue Implications in the Early Concepts of Heaven and Earth

Kui-feng ZHAI   

  • Online:2021-05-15 Published:2021-05-24

摘要:

“天地”是中国古典思想的重要标志性范畴,它渊源甚早,大体上成熟于春秋战国时期,我们今天很多耳熟能详的关于天地的成语、词语基本上都是在这个时期出现的。从空间意象来说,“天上地下”“天圆地方”是最古老也是影响最大的两大天地观念。由“天上地下”派生衍化出“天高地下”“天高地厚”之说,进而以高明/博厚、自强/厚载论天地之德。受古老的盖天说天文思想影响,古人还把天地想象为圆盖和大车,万物都在天地的覆载之中,天覆地载,至公无私,无所不容。“天圆地方”观念也派生出“戴天履地”的说法,甚至以头、帽之圆象天,足、鞋之方象地;同时,方圆与幽明、规矩在意象上也对应关联起来,天圆而明为规,地幽而方为矩。空间意象上的天地观念相应地也关联着德性和智性修养,如高明、博厚、无私、宽容、圆而神、方以智等等。这些天地观念和精神修养影响深远,在中华文明思想体系中有着奠基性意义。由“天上地下”也衍化出一种“天尊地卑”的思想,甚至等而下之与礼制秩序“君尊臣卑”对应起来,这是早期天地思想在君主专制社会中的一种异化。

关键词: 天地观念, 空间意象, 德性

Abstract:

“Heaven and earth” (tiandi) is a significant landmark category in classical Chinese thoughts. It has a long history and matured in the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States when many idioms and words about heaven and earth which we are familiar with today appeared. “Heaven above and earth below” and “round heaven and square earth” are the two oldest and most influential spatial images in the understanding of heaven and earth. The concepts of “heaven high and earth below” and “high heaven and deep earth” were derived from “heaven above and earth below”, and then the concepts of being high and brilliant and being self-discipline were used to explain the virtue of heaven, while the concepts of being extensive and deep and being deep and sustainable were used to explain the virtue of earth. Influenced by the ancient astronomical theory of “canopy heaven”, the ancients also imagined heaven as canopy covering everything while earth as cart sustaining everything, and in such a way heaven and earth were selfless and inclusive. The concept of “round heaven and square earth” also led to the expression of “wearing heaven and treading on earth”, and even heaven was understood as the round of head or a hat, while earth as the square of a foot or one shoe. Meanwhile, as interrelated images, the round, the bright and the compasses were related to the concept of heaven, while the square, the dark and the carpenter’s square to the concept of earth. The concept of heaven and earth as spatial images also corresponds to the cultivation of virtue and intelligence, such as brilliance, generosity, selflessness, tolerance, divinity, wisdom and so on. Such understanding of moral accomplishments with the images of heaven and earth is far-reaching and fundamentally significant in the ideological system of Chinese civilization. Moreover, the concept of “heaven being the superior and earth being the inferior” was derived from the concept of “heaven above and earth below”, and it even lowered down to correspond to the concept of “monarch being the highest and his ministers being low” in the ritual system. This is the alienation of the early concept of heaven and earth in the society of autocratic monarchy.

Key words: concept of heaven and earth, spatial images, virtue