由「之間」論莊子之用與不用

Discussion on Zhuang-Zi's 'Usefulness' and 'Uselessness' With The Consideration of The Idea 'Between'

莊子如何以「用」和「無用」的辯證闡揚物我之間的關係，已是莊學研究的重要主題；然而，此觀念如何成為莊子應對人世間政治權力的運作，則有待進一步探討。筆者將以〈山木〉中大木寓言的「之間」為出發點，說明「之間」不僅不會和「道德之鄉」的修養衝突，反而正是因此才有「之間」所開展的行動空間。接著筆者將以直面權力的「用者」以及避開權力的「不用者」作為探討對象進行分析。以「用者」而言，最重要的是在不同的情境脈絡下保全自己，並且在情況允許的前提下捍衛自己的尊嚴或是改變使用權力的剛性思維；「不用者」則是強看見權力運作對生命造成的戕害，因此選擇避開政治權力的漩渦，但「不用」並不代表放棄價值理想，在「不用」的位置上，仍有其他行動的可能性。

It has been a critical issue that how Zhuang-Zi（莊子）illustrate the relationship between “wu”（物）and the subject（我） with the discussion of “usefulness”（用）and “uselessness” （無用）. However, there's still some potential to discover how Zhuang-Zi treat the political power with such idea. Therefore, in order to explain the potential to act in the idea “between” （之間）, the author suggest that the idea “between” and the “ origin of DaoDe”（道德之鄉） would not lead to contradiction. Next, the author would discuss how “people with usefulness”（用者）, who face political power directly , and “people with uselessness”（無用者）, who did not do so, would treat the political power separately. “People with usefulness” as Zhuang-Zi concerned, would regard how to protect themselves from the political power in all kind of situation as first concern . And then they would try to defend from the insult or dissolve the force of the political power if possible. AS for “the people with uselessness”, they were aware of the harm from the political power, so they chose to keep away from it. But it did not mean that they gave up their values. Instead, with such situation, they still had other ways to influence people.