「耳順」之「耳」字義及非衍考辨

A Verification of the Chinese Character “Er” in the Collocation of “Er-shun” as a Meaningful Element, Not an Expletive

《論語》一書於西漢武帝之時，即有《魯論》、《齊論》、《古論》三者并行於 世。迨西漢末張禹以《魯論》篇章為本，删削《齊論》〈問王〉、〈知道〉二篇， 合成世稱之《張侯論》。其後東漢•鄭玄就《張侯論》篇章考之《齊》、《古》為 之注。《論語•為政篇》所云：「六十而耳順」，鄭玄即注曰：「耳順，聞其言而知 其微旨也。」歷魏•何晏等輯八家注之《論語集解》及南朝梁•皇侃《義疏》， 皆承其說。惟迄唐•韓愈別出心裁而稱「耳順」之「耳」為「爾」非「口耳」之 「耳」，李翺附和其言。洎此而後，亦出現「耳順」之「耳」為「衍字」論、「語 助『而已』」論，更有稱「耳」為「聏」之說者，真偽分爭，困擾學界，無以所 適。然以中國現存尚保有《論語•為政篇》所云：「六十而耳順」之《論語集解》 唐抄本，對照1973年出土於河北定州八角廊「西漢中山懷王劉脩墓」之《論語》 殘簡，確然可證「六十而耳順」之「耳」，於西漢三《論》并行之時，已同然存 在，絕無「衍字」之虞；且考《說文解字》、《經傳釋詞》諸本，亦了然「耳順」 之「耳」為「口耳」之「耳」，絕非「爾」、「聏」二字，更非語助「而已」之釋。

At the period of “Emperor Wu of the Han”，there were 3 versions of the canon “Confucian Analects.” In the chapter “Government Exercises”，Zheng Xuan had made an annotation of the phrase “At sixty，my ear was an obedient organ for the reception of truth” as “knowing the truth right at the moment hearing it.” He-Yan’s “The Analects Explain” and Wong Kan’s “A Review about the research on editions of The Analects Explain” (488-545) all accepted his explanation. In the Tang Dynasty， Han-Yu (768-824) had explained that the word “ear”（「耳」）did not refer to the organ. Instead， it is a homonym for the phrase “nothing more”（「爾」）.Li-Ao (774-836)accepted such explanation. Afterward， there was also such explanation that the word was just a pleonasm with no actual meaning. Such diversion from the basic meaning of the word has disturbed the academic community for years. However， referring to the copy from the Tang Dynasty， we can determine that the word actually refers to the organ and it does not represent the meaning “nothing more.” In addition， it is definitely not a pleonasm with no meaning. The purpose of this thesis is to clarify such ambiguity that has disturbed the academic community for years， and confirm the definition of the word.