漢語「憲法」意義考正

Trajectory of Chinese Word Xianfa: An Etymologic Perspective

古漢語“憲法”是“憲”的一個衍生語詞，二者詞義有很大程度的同一性。古人訓“憲”為“法”，多直解其義，未能盡疏其意。他們用“憲”稱“法”，初為特指先王之法或舊典，意為恆常有效、世代遵從之法。後詞義擴展，“憲”多泛指各種法律，成為對“法”的一種尊稱。在先秦，“憲法”有兩種構詞：一是“憲”與“法”同義連綴，泛指國法；二是“憲法”作為一個偏正語詞，“憲”是“法”的修飾詞，“憲法”有“顯法”或“常法”之義，但無“根本大法”或“最高法律”之義。秦漢以降，“憲法”皆屬同義聯合語詞，泛指“國法”、“王法”、“法制”、“刑法”，有時還指稱一種治道與治法，但仍無“根本法”之義，僅蘊涵看人們對法的一種敬意。The Archaic Chinese word Xianfa is derived from Xian and their meanings overlap to a large ex- tent. The ancient Chinese regularly took Xian as Fa while read its meaning literally and incompletely. At first they called Fa as Xian to refer to laws eIiacted by kings in the past or codes that had perpetual force and would be complied with generation after generation. Along with extension of meaning, Xian began to be employed to mean a variety of laws while showing a respect to Fa. In Pre-Qin days Xianfa got two meanings one of which in- dicated national law and the other described ordinary law or applying law but neither bore the meaning of basic law or supreme law. Later on, in the Qin and Han Dynasties, Xianfa was generally used as a compound word to mean national law, law promulgated by kings, legal system, criminal law, or ruling ways or rule of law, which had got nothing to do with basic law apart from a sense of people' s respect to the law.