《史記‧孔子世家》中「孔子不用」發微

A Probe into Confucius’s‘Unusable’in“The Hereditary House of Confucius”, Records of the Grand Historian

司馬遷根據先秦文獻資料整理成的〈孔子世家〉，是歷史上第一篇孔子全傳，近百年來飽受學界的質疑與批評，主要是圍繞在史實考據、材料詮釋等問題上，如何解讀〈孔子世家〉成了近代以來的一大問題。本文以〈孔子世家〉為一篇結構完整的文本，根據屢屢出現的「不用」二字線索，重新解讀這篇名作中的孔子敘事。經分析發現，司馬遷有意識地以「不用」來提挈故事情節的轉折，以寓喻孔子汲汲「求用」、「用我」的性格。藉由「求用」與「不用」的交錯線索，帶出孔子亟欲行道以濟世的人格特質，卻又「終不能用」的悲劇命運；並透過周遊列國的困厄遭遇，逐步形塑出一個「不容然後見君子」的行道者，終而上達天德的先知形象。最後，孔子因不能「見之於行事」，不得已而「載之空言」於《春秋》，以垂素王之文於後世。總結言之，以「不用」為文眼通讀〈孔子世家〉，可以一線貫串而前後呼應，文本脈絡隱然而愈出。

“The Hereditary House of Confucius” 孔子世家 compiled by Sima Qian 司 馬遷based on pre-Qin documents is the first full biography of Confucius in history. However, it has been questioned and criticized by academia in the past century, mainly focus on its historical facts and interpretation of material. The way to interpret “The Hereditary House of Confucius” has become a significant issue in this modern times. This paper serves “The Hereditary House of Confucius” as a narrative text structure and reinterprets the narrative of Confucius based on the clues of ‘unusable’ 不用 that appear frequently. It was found that Sima Qian consciously used ‘unusable’ to highlight the turning point of the storyline to metaphor the eagerness of Confucius in ‘seeking for use’ 求用. The intertwined clues of ‘seeking for use’ and ‘unusable’ show Confucius's personality traits, who desperately wanted to carry out the principle but ended up with an unusable tragic fate. When going through tough times, a prophet's image of Confucius was gradually shaped by his extraordinary persevere personality. Since Confucius could not make a difference in his time, he embeds his thought in the Spring and Autumn Annals 春秋in order to pass down the great ideal to the future generation. In conclusion, the context of “The Hereditary House of Confucius” will be gradually clear and coherent when reading with the clue of ‘unusable’.