形上学

道 Dao

“道”字由两个部分组成：“辶”意为行走；“首”是指包括头发和眼睛在内的头部，也有最前方之意。“道”字通常通“导”（与“道”同语根）。“导”意为“领导”。“道”字是一个具有动词性、过程性和动态性的重要词语。它最早见于《尚书》开凿沟渠，“疏导”河水，以防决堤的叙述之中。“首”这个元素的存在赋予“道”字“领导”，或“引导”之意。

The character has two elements: chuo辶“to pass over, ” “to go over,” “to lead through” (on foot), and show 首， itself a compound literally meaning “head”—hair and eye together—and therefore “foremost.”Dao is used often as a loan character for its cognate, dao 導， “to lead.” Thus the character is significantly verbal, processional, and dynamic. The earliest appearance of dao in the Book of Documents is in the context of cutting a channel and “leading” a river to prevent the overflowing of its banks. Even the shou “head” component has the suggestion of“to lead,” or “to give a heading.”

如果我们将“道”首先理解为动词的话，它的其他几个引申意义就会自然浮现出来：传导；道路、方法、技术、办法；解释、说、道理。但是，就其本质而言，“道”似乎是指修整道路的工程规划；略作引申，即是修葺平整的通途大路。也正是这一引申，使得“道”常常在翻译中被名词化为“路”，但是，

Taking the verbal dao as primary, its several derived meanings emerge rather naturally: to lead through, and hence, road, path, way, method, art, teachings; to explain, to tell, doctrines. At its most fundamental level, dao seems to denote the active project of “road building,” and by extension, to connote a road that has been made, and hence can be traveled. It is by this connotation that我们必须将简单地在道路上旅行和开拓自己的路径这二者明确地区分开来。按照我们的理解，实现“道”的过程，就是用源自某个文化先驱的特定方式去体验、诠释和影响世界，并且同时将这种处世之道发扬光大。上述处世之道恰恰可以为文化承继者们指点迷津。dao is so often nominalized in translation (“the Way”), but we must distinguish between simply traveling on a road, and making the journey one's own. In our interpretation, to realize the dao is to experience, to interpret, and to influence the world in such a way as to reinforce and extend the way of life inherited from one's cultural predecessors. This way of living in the world then provides a road map and direction for one's cultural successors.

孔子认为，“道”的最基本的含义是人道，即“为人之道”。诚如《论语》第十五篇第二十九章所言：“人能弘道，非道弘人。”

（《<论语>的哲学诠释》，第45—46页）

For Confucius, dao is primarily rendao人道, that is, “a way of becoming consummately and authoritatively human.” As 15.29 tells us: “It is the person who is able to broaden the way, not the way that broadens the person.”

(The Analects of Confucius: A Philosophical Translation, pp. 45-46)

在“仅仅在路上旅行”以及“开辟自己的旅程”之间，我们必须做出区分。实现“道”就是去经验、去诠释、去影响我们所在的世界，所采取的方式是强化并拓展从我们的文化先驱那里继承而来的生活方式。“道”必然要求对那些来者呈现出真实，以能够被那些来者所信任的方式生活在这个世界之中，在这种意义上，“道”是“真理”。正是由于这个原因，我们通常将“道”翻译为“the proper way”。

We must distinguish between simply traveling on a road, and making the journey one's own. To realize dao is to experience, to interpret, and to influence the world in such a way as to reinforce and extend a way of life inherited from one's cultural precursors. Dao is “truth” in the sense that it entails being true to those who have come before, and living in the world in a way that can be trusted by those yet to come. It is for this reason that we translate dao usually as “the proper way.”

对孔子而言，在传统的早期，“道”基本上即“人道”，也就是“成为一个圆满而有权威的人的方法”（成人之道）。《中庸》多次提到《论语》，将其作为经典的权威，也多次提到孔子本人，将其作为一个值得效法的典范。通过这种方式，《中庸》阐明了这种儒家的成人之道。不过，或许是受到道家的影响，当然肯定还受到孟子的影响，《中庸》强调圣人对于其周遭世界的深远的转化效果。

For Confucius, early on in the tradition, dao is primarily rendao人道， that is, “a way of becoming consummately and authoritatively human.” The Zhongyong elaborates upon this Confucian way of becoming authoritatively human with many allusions to the Analects as canonical authority and to Confucius himself as a model worthy of emulation. But, perhaps influenced by Daoistic and certainly Mencian sensibilities, the Zhongyong emphasizes the profoundly transformative effect that consummate human beings have on the world around them.

通过创造性地参与转化和滋养世界的各种活动，诸如孔子那样的圣人获得了一种真正的宇宙性的地位，成为天地完全的伙伴。界定繁荣社群的那些既经修养了的道德的、审美的和宗教的感受性，受到自然环境韵律的启发并有机地整合到自然环境的韵律之中。那些感受性具有一种升华灵性的效果，那种升华灵性的效果给世界增添了意义和价值。

Sages such as Confucius, through their creative participation in the transforming and nourishing activities of the world, achieve a truly cosmic stature, becoming full partners with heaven and earth. The cultivated moral, aesthetic, and religious sensibilities that define the flourishing community, inspired by and fully integrated into the rhythms of the natural environment, have an elevating spiritual effect that adds significance and value to the world.

如同许多经典文献一样，《中庸》一书，对“天之道”和“人之道”进行了区分。这两个范畴远不是将自身融化到那种排斥性的“自然/培养”（nature/nurture）的两分法之中，而是共生（symbiotic）和彼此蕴涵的（mutually entailing），并且富有成果地聚合在“君子之道”之中并最终汇聚在“圣人之道”之中。这样一来，这种汇聚的工程就不是将本来彼此独立的我们的生活经验的两个方面整合到一起，而是使他们彼此关联和相互依赖的各种可能性达到最优化的状态。

（《切中伦常：<中庸>的新诠与新译》，第82-83页）

In the Zhongyong, as in much of the classical corpus, a distinction is made between“the way of tian ( tian zhi dao天之道)”and“the proper way of human beings (ren zhi dao人之道).”These categories, far from resolving themselves into an exclusive “nature/nurture” dichotomy, are symbiotic and mutually entailing, converging most productively in“the proper way of the exemplary person (junzi zhi dao君子之道), ”and ultimately,“the proper way of the sage (sheng ren zhi dao聖人之道).” The project, then, is not to integrate two aspects of our experience that are originally independent of each other, but rather to optimize the possibilities of their correlativity and interdependence.

(Focusing the Familiar: A Translation and Philosophical Interpretation of the Zhongyong, pp. 63-64)

简言之，孔子确信，文化——作为社会的精华，其首要的发展是鼓励和表达固有的道德感情——是积累和常规的进步。上古之人虽然有能力发展他们的道德天性，然而他们亦缺乏为增强这一能力所必需的文化制度和规范性指导。尧舜虽说能够以其个人行为和治国业绩为楷模来培养这一道德本性，虽然能够对中国早期文明作出独一无二的持久贡献，但是他们之所以能够做到这一切，主要并非是有适宜的环境，而更多的是归功于他们个人的杰出才能。然而，在西周时期，中国文化的发展就社会交往形式而言已达到了相当成熟的水平——富裕的生活环境有益于体认人类的道德本性。由古代有道之圣人建立起来的文化制度和习俗与社会结构相适应，并且引导当时人们向着较高的人文水准迈进。对孔子来说，西周早期实是代表了中国社会进化所达到的一个高峰。然而遗憾的是，这一高峰好景不长。西周早期建设了一个黄金时代后，随着政治斗争的滋长，人们逐渐偏离了“道”。到了西周末年，政治制度已名存实亡，周天子成为野心勃勃的封建诸侯所操纵的傀儡。在这一没落的过程中，建立在道德内容之上的西周文化的声望一落千丈，只有名称和礼仪的空壳被完整地保留下来。与此螺旋式的衰退过程相回应，孔子鼓吹返归周的道统，复兴培育了这一黄金时代的丰富而充实的文化。

（《中国古代的统治艺术：<淮南子·主术>研究》，第21-22页）

In short, Confucius believes that culture—the social refinements developed primarily to encourage and articulate proper moral feelings—is cumulative and generally progressive. Whereas people living in high antiquity had the capacity for developing their moral nature, they were lacking in the cultural institutions and formal guidance necessary to maximize this capacity. That Yao and Shun were able to nurture this moral nature in their conduct and administration and, in doing so, were able to make a signal and lasting contribution to China's emerging civilization, was due more to their own personal excellence than to the congeniality of their environment. By the early Chou period, however, the development of Chinese culture had culminated in a sophisticated pattern for social intercourse—fertile ground indeed in which to encourage human kind's moral nature. The cultural institutions and conventions established by the earlier sages who themselves had “lived”the Way were adapted to structure society and guide contemporaries toward a comparable level of humanity. For Confucius, the early Western Chou period marks a high point in the evolution of Chinese society. Unfortunately, however, this high point was short-lived. Having achieved the golden age of early Chou, people were gradually deflected from the Way by growing political strife. By the end of Western Chou, the political institutions had been drained of substance and the Chou kings had become puppets manipulated by ambitious feudal lords. In the process of degeneration, the glory that had been the early Chou culture was divested of its underlying moral content; only the name and the ceremonial shell remained intact. In response to this process of spiraling decline, Confucius advocated a return to the Way of Chou and a revival of the fertile and substantial culture which had fostered this golden age.

(The Art of Rulership: A Study of Ancient Chinese Political Thought, pp. 5-6)

虽然一些学者在分析《老子》中“道”的意思时，已经指出了这个词具有许多层含义，不过我自己在这里只讨论它的三种含义：常道、天之道和至人之道。

Although scholars have identified many levels of this term in analyzing its place in the Lao Tzu , I shall limit myself to a discussion of only three: the constant tao , the natural tao , and the tao of the consummate person.

“常道”是道家对全部实在的总称。它被描述为终极的形上学实在，是绝对的、无条件的、无差别的、神圣的、自存的、无所不在的和不可言说的。它是一个发生的过程：作为某种意识，它是现象世界的“根源”，然而与其说它是超越的，不如说它是内在的；与其说它是过程的，不如说它是本体的。说“道”是超越的，是就它超越了任何个别而言；然而它又并不是超越的，因为它不是一个孤立的实在。说它是变化的，是由于它是所有现象变化的发动处；然而又是寂然不变的，因此在这个意义上它既不会增加，也不会减少。这个永恒的“道”是超象与现象的对立面的统一。“道”的超象方面是从它作为一个无限的和无差别的存在之总体来理解的。《老子》中的许多地方都将“道”描述为空虚、无形、不可名状、恒常等，以强调它的有机的普遍性。“道”无所不在。“道”的现象方面即指其具备了现象界的特殊性、复杂性、多样性和事实性或“客观实在性”。这一方面又往往有关于“德”、充盈、万物、形、名以及变化之类的描述，具有强调现象界之实在的意义。为了说明“道”具有现象的含义，就必须从整体中区分出个别，而且也必须依据整体对这同一个个别作出完整的理解，因此就产生了有关“始”“返”“动”等思想，以及“朴”和“常名”等概念。基于“常道”具有超象与现象这两个对立的方面，所有相关的反义词都可以用来描述它（如恒常与变动，大与小，无形与有形，绝对与相对，等等）。

The constant tao is the Taoist epithet for the sum total of reality. It can be described as the ultimate metaphysical reality, the absolute, the unconditioned, the undifferentiated and holistic, the uncreated, the all-pervading, the ineffable. It is the process of becoming. It is the “source” of the phenomenal world in an immanent rather than transcendent sense and in an ontological rather than chronological sense. The tao is transcendent in that it“goes beyond” any particular; yet it is not transcendent in that it is not a separate reality. It is changing in that it is the locus of all phenomenal change; yet it is unchanging in the sense that it suffers neither increase nor diminution. There are two polar aspects of the constant tao : the metaphenomenal and the phenomenal. The metaphenomenal tao is the tao apprehended in its indeterminate and undifferentiated totality as existence. It is described variously in the text as vacuous, empty, formless, the nameless, the constant, and so on as a means of underscoring its organismic pervasiveness. There is nothing which is not tao . Its phenomenal aspect is the tao apprehended as the phenomenal world in its particularity, plurality, diversity, and facticity or “thingness.” It is described variously as te, fullness, the myriad things, form, the named, the changing, and so on as a means of emphasizing the reality of the phenomenal world. In order to apprehend the tao as phenomena it is necessary to differentiate the particular from the whole and yet fully understand the same particular with reference to the whole—hence the generative idea of “origin,” of “returning,” of“mother,” the notion of the “uncarved block”and “the dispensation of names.” These two polar aspects of the constant tao, the metaphenomenal and the phenomenal, are the basis on which all dichotomous predications used to describe it can be reconciled (constant/changing, big/small, formless/formal, absolute/relative, and so on).

“道”的观念之成立，基于两个先决的思想条件，它们并非总是为人们所认识。这第一个思想主题是关于某种有机的和神圣的实在概念，它构成了道家相对主义的基础，并解释了“道”的现象与超象这两个方面的关系。这种有机主义的学说反对从根本上消除差异，坚持认为，事物处于各种关系的中心，而这些关系则表明了它在整体中的前后联系。这个事物某种意义上是个别的和相对的，因此它可以从整体中被区分出来；但是它又与每一个其他的事物相“同一”，并且某种意义上是绝对的，因此可以完全推论或确定：任何条件下的个别（这就是说，所有符合于它的条件）就是无条件的整体。这种有机的学说肯定合个别与整体、现象与超象的本体实在，但否定任何实在意义上的终极的自主性、孤立性或非连续性。它坚持认为，个别是相互确定、相互限定和互为条件的，而且正因为如此，每一个个别都是一个观察整体的窗户。完整地理解了个别，也就是理解了整体。

（《中国古代的统治艺术：<淮南子·主术>研究》，第63-65页）

There are two presuppositions underlying this notion of tao which are not always taken into consideration. The first is an organismic and holistic conception of reality which forms the basis for Taoist relativism and explains the relationship between the phenomenal and metaphenomenal aspects of the tao. This doctrine of organism denies the essentialistic finality of distinctions, insisting that a thing is a focus of relationships determined by its context in the whole. The thing is particular and relative in the sense that it can be differentiated from the whole, but it is “identical'' with every other thing and absolute in the sense that the full consequence or definition of any conditioned particular (that is, the full set of its conditions) is the unconditioned whole. This doctrine of organism affirms the ontological reality of both the particular and the whole, the phenomenal and the metaphenomenal, but denies any notion of final autonomy, discreteness, or discontinuity in reality. It insists that particulars are mutually determining, mutually defining, and mutually conditioned—and, as such, each particular is a window on the whole. To understand any particular in its fullness is to understand the whole.

(The Art of Rulership: A Study of Ancient Chinese Political Thought, pp. 34-35)

《老子》理解的“天之道”是指自然变化的秩序与规律：复归原则，自然均衡，内在的对立统一，公正无私，等等。因为“天之道”是“常道”的一个方面，所以，这一规律也可以说是“常道”所特有的，但是，这一规律又并非是它的特有属性，因为人类生存往往明显背离这一永恒之道，所以它又必须能够解决人类的这一迷失。这就是说，为了调节人类的行为，“常道”与“天之道”的差别是必然的。人类的行为与天之道不相一致，但却并不脱离常道的范围。

This natural tao reflects what the Lao Tzu perceives to be the order and regularity of natural change: the reversion principle, natural equilibrium, implicit opposites, impartiality, and so on. Now, this regularity is also characteristic of the constant tao inasmuch as the natural tao is an aspect of it, but it is not characteristic of it inasmuch as the constant tao must also account for the human maverick who is very capable of living at variance with the natural tao. That is to say, the “constant tao” and “natural tao” distinction is necessary in order to accommodate human conduct which is inconsistent with the natural tao but does not go beyond the parameters of the constant tao.

道家学者主张效法天之道，以此作为达到与常道齐一的途径：

人 法 地，地 法 天，天法道，道法自然。（《老子》二十五章）

The Taoist takes as his project the emulation of the natural tao as a vehicle for achieving identity with the constant tao:

The human being emulates earth;

Earth emulates heaven;

Heaven emulates the tao ;

And the tao emulates that which is natural to it.[Lao Tzu 25]

尽管对“达致与常道齐一可能意味着什么”这样的问题的思索，已经超出了我们这里所讨论的范围，然而《老子》和《庄子》的这几段话已经包含了某种关于所有的存在物具有统一性，因此自我与他人（他物）也是虽分别却又统一的认识。在这两部著作中，对于人类的完美境界即达致同常道的齐一这一点，都说得十分清楚：

圣人抱一为天下式。（《老子》二十二章）

岂唯形骸有聋盲哉？夫知亦有之。……之人也，之德也，将旁（磅）礴万物以为一。（《庄子·逍遥游》）

故为是举莛与楹，厉与西施，恢恑憰怪，道通为一。其分也，成也；其成也，毁也。凡物无成与毁，复通为一。唯达者知通为一。（《庄子·齐物论》）

Although it is beyond our concerns here to speculate on what it might mean to achieve identity with the constant tao, passages in the Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu suggest that this involves an awareness of the unity of all existence in which the self/other dichotomy is reconciled. That both texts do describe human consummation as consisting in identity with the constant tao is clear:

Therefore the sage embraces the One to become the model of the world. [ Lao Tzu 22]

Do you think blindness and deafness are limited to just the physical body? One's understanding can also suffer from them…. This person and this kind of inner potency will extend things in all directions to make one. [ Chuang Tzu 1.2]

Because of this, while we distinguish between a stalk and a bean, a leper and the classic beauty Hsi Shih, the tao unifies every weird and wonderful, strange and extraordinary thing as one. The discrimination of a thing is its actualization, and its actualization is its destruction. Where things are free of actualization and destruction, they are reunified as one. Only the enlightened person understands this principle of unifying as one. [ Chuang Tzu 2.4]

这向我们揭示了“道”的第三层含义。作为自然的某种例外，人们既可以经过奋斗以适应环境，在不断顺应自然的根本法则的过程中完善自己，也可能以某种与自然状况不谐调的方式去追求生活。总之存在着两种可能性。至人之道是以天之道为模式并与之相和谐的。下面这段话提到了这个“道”:

故失道而后德，失德而后仁，失仁而后义，失义而后礼。（《老子》三十八章）

This leads us to the third level of tao. As an exception to nature one can either strive to be in accord with the environment, achieving realization in a way consonant with the underlying principles of nature, or one can pursue life in a way inconsistent with the natural condition. These are the two possibilities. The tao of the consummate human being is a mode of living patterned on and in concert with the natural tao. This is the tao referred to in the following passage:

Therefore when we neglect the tao,

Then te arises;

When we neglect te,

Then benevolence arises;

When we neglect benevolence,

Then rightness arises;

When we neglect rightness,

Then social norms and rites arise. [ Lao Tzu 38]

只有当人与人之间的自然关系遭到破坏，非自然的行为普遍存在时，才需要统一人类行为的各种准则。在道家哲学里，显然至人的道即天之道，而至人则是常道的化身。……

（《中国古代的统治艺术：<淮南子·主术>研究》，第67—69页）

Only when the natural expression of interpersonal relationships breaks down and unnatural activity becomes commonplace is it necessary to articulate standards for human conduct. In Taoist philosophy, it would appear that the tao of the consummating person is an analog to the natural tao and the consummating person is an analog to the constant tao….

(The Art of Rulership: A Study of Ancient Chinese Political Thought, pp. 37-38)

值得注意的是，“我知道”是一种及物语法，但“道”并不是这种语法的“谓语”，而是包含实实在在的“主语”意义。这种情况就像“生活”“历史”或“经验”，不能以二元论意义去对待。“道”表示指导在世间生活的一种质量道路（qualitative way），它既包含主观性，也包含客观性，是不可分的。“主语”的属性及其做出的行为形式同样是不可分的。“道”不承认亚里士多德的“范畴”，而是同时与主语、谓语条件保持联系性，同时也与“知”的质量以及所知世界的条件保持相关性。“知”既给予其主体“仁”的质量，也给予我们其所知之物，既给予我们采取行为的具体情势，也给予我们采取行为的本身形式。

（《儒家角色伦理学：一套特色伦理学词汇》，第212-213页）

Importantly, in the transitive “I know the way” (wo zhidao), “the way” (dao) is not the “object” of knowledge as such, but has a real subjective dimension. It is a term like “life” or “history” or “experience” that does not resolve into dualisms. Dao is a qualitative way of conducting one's life in the world that entails both subject and object, and the attributes of the subject as well as the modality of the actions being carried out. Dao defies Aristotle's categories, having as much to do with the conditions of the subject as with the object, and having as much to do with the quality of understanding as it does with the conditions of the world as understood. Knowing tells us as much about the ren quality of the person who “knows”as it does about something known, as much about a particular disposition to act as it does about the modality of acting itself.

( Confucian Role Ethics: A Vocabulary, pp. 192-193)

“道”常被一种宇宙“本原”语言描述为我们所知的这一世界的“本原”。但是我在上面已经指出，这个宇宙论意义的“道”，远非那个高高在上形而上学的起始原则，它独立于它的造物，实际上是把它们都包括在内持续不已的生命过程。这种世界本身自生和永远偶然性的血脉展开，是我们的经验场域。正如我们所见到的，如果秩序真是内在和新兴的，而不作为独立原则存在，那么阐述这个“世界形成”的一切语言，一定是历史的，临时的，有时是诗一般的，有时是比喻性语汇，它表述“如我们所知”的这个世界秩序。

（《儒家角色伦理学：一套特色伦理学词汇》，第250页）

Often dao道is described in the language of a cosmological “source,” the “origins” of the world as we know it. But as I have argued above, this cosmological dao far from being a superordinated metaphysical principle that stands independent of its creatures is in fact the ongoing living processes that include them all. It is the generative and always contingent genealogical unfolding of the world itself as our field of experience. As we have seen, if order is truly inherent and emergent rather than existing as an independent principle, then the language that describes all aspects of this “world-ing” must be historicized as a provisional, sometimes poetic and sometimes metaphorical vocabulary for the world order as we know it.

(Confucian Role Ethics: A Vocabulary, p. 227)