敬天授時：《周禮》依「時」行令的意義斠理

Heaven Revered, Time Ordained:The Meaning of Issuing Seasonal Ordinances in the Zhouli

古代月令體裁的記述，遵循春生夏長，秋歛冬藏自然週期的時序變遷，將紛繁的人事活動納入宇宙圖式加以整合和理解。本文深入梳理《周禮》文本的「時」義類型，始知自然「天時」與社會「人時」於王官政治的運作機制，有著強弱隱顯的交互作用；進而辨析《周禮》的時令組織框架，係由天子（或王者）依「周正」頒朔，百官經略庶務依「夏正」建寅月序行事。而由於《周禮》的組織規模，正介於古四「時」令衍為十二「月」令，從疏略化成精細的過渡階段，因此在整體結構上，雖基本合乎《禮記．月令》「四時十二月」時節系統的寫作思維，但實際操作較偏重以「時」寄政，而非「月」名。所得成果，信能提供讀者瞭解《周禮》時令政治的豐富面貌，亦由此揭櫫時間觀念在儒家禮學表述中所具備的人文素養與精神意涵。

The classical genre“Yue Ling（月令）,”which means the proceedings of government in the different months, is a political narrative written according to the natural cycle of seasons. It was a way of integrating and comprehending the various human activities into the cosmic pattern. Drawing on the idea of Yue Ling, this paper explores the organization of the occasions of Emperor’s edicts（王官之時）within Zhou Li. By scrutinizing the types of“occasions”in Zhou Li, we have come to realize that there are strong-weak/visible-invisible interactions between natural time and social time in the operation mechanism of wang guan politics（王官政治）. Thus we can discriminate the fact that the promulgation of new year’s calendar within Zhou Li is on the basis of“Zhou Zheng（周正）,”the first month of the Zhou calendar, while the general affairs are in accordance with“Xia Zheng（夏正）,”the first month of the Xia calendar. Although this narrative logic is basically in line with the“Four Seasons-Twelve Months”chronological system, it is more in favor of using“occasion”rather than“month”to connect with policy. The results obtained will provide the scholarly community with an understanding of the richness of the seasonal politics of the Zhou Li. It will also reveal the humanistic qualities and spiritual connotations of the concept of time in Confucian ritual narratives.