〈中國軸心突破及其歷史進程〉述評兼論孔子語境中的「天」

Commentary on China's Axis Breakthrough and Its Historical Processand Comments on ''Heaven''（天）in the Context of Confucius’

〈中國軸心突破及其歷史進程〉可視為余英時先生在相關論題上最後的發表。因此我在二○一四年六月二十二日初讀此文時便隨手眉注，常有會心。其間因受聘「國立台灣大學人文社會高等學院」訪問學人，專心研討會而時有間斷。逮及閱畢全文、全書，深覺余先生文章勝義紛陳，很能發人省思；於是思欲對其文詳作介紹串講，以表彰其思考所得。部分個人覺得猶有不安的地方，亦提出不同意見，以為商榷。
由於個人意見與余英時主要的差別在於，我認為孔子語境中的「天」不能排除是某種生命體。由此出發，自然認為孔子的「軸心突破」誠然如余英時所言，對於宇宙和人生的體認和思維，都跳上了一個新的層次；更重要而必須指出的是，孔子「軸心突破」具體內容之一個面向，應是由原來巫文化的多神信仰進入一神信仰，唯並不明言而忤當時人。由此而凸顯了他「溫和突破者」的形象。基於以上原因，本文遂定名為：〈中國軸心突破及其歷史進程〉述評兼論孔子語境中的「天」。
同時，余英時此文重申了他對中西方思想大別的看法，認為前者為內向超越，後者為外向超越；並對何以致此之由，有所論述。本文之末也因而在余英時論述的基礎上，提出相應的不同看法，以期有進一步的討論。
文章分為五節，分別是壹，前言；貳，〈中國軸心突破及其歷史進程上篇〉內容述要；參，〈中國軸心突破及其歷史進程下篇〉內容述要；肆，評〈中國軸心突破及其歷史進程〉兼論孔子語境中的「天」；伍，附論─東西文化內外向超越異趨說的再檢討。

China's Axis Breakthrough and Its Historical Processis considered as the last publication on related topicsof Dr. Yu, Ying-shih（余英時1930-2021）. Therefore when I started reading this article on June 22nd, 2014, I put many notes on it. While reading Yu’s article I was invited to be a visiting scholar of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences, NTU.As a result, continually reading the entire article was impossible. Few months later when I finally finished reading it, I found that Dr. Yu's article is rich in meanings and very thought-provoking. To recommend his research, I want to give a detailed introduction of it in this paper. But still there are some parts in Dr. Yu's article I could not agree with, I also put forward different opinions as further discussions here.
The main difference between my opinion and Dr. Yu's theory is that I found ''Heaven'' (天) in the context of Confucius cannot be ruled out as some kind of life. From this view point, it is natural to consider that it’s indeed as Dr. Yu quoted from Jaspers’(1883-1969) theory that Confucius’understanding and thinking of Universe and life have jumped into a new level. But what more important and should be pointed out is that one aspect of the specific content of ''axis breakthrough'' of Confucius is transforming the polytheistic beliefs of the original Witch Culture into monotheistic beliefs, only he did not expressly disobey the people in his era. This highlights Confucius image as a ''moderate breakthrough one ''.
Dr. Yu reiterated his views on the main difference between Chinese and Western thoughts in this article as well. He believed that the former is introverted transcendence, while the latter is extroverted transcendence. He also discussed the reasons for saying so. At the end of this paper I put forward the corresponding ''dissenting opinions'' which are on the basis of Dr. Yu's discussion.