中國思想史上的兩種本體論思維

Two Types of Metaphysics in the History of Chinese Thoughts

本文主要是以「心」、「物」的相互對應關係來闡釋中國思想史上「體質性」與「理體性」兩種「本體」觀念的發展與演變。先秦時代由於社會物性文明的興盛，刺激了人類的生命觀隨著與無窮的氣化世界融合而擴大，產生了「體質性的本體觀念」來做為生命與宇宙天地合一的解釋基礎。魏晉時代則相反的由於「心力」增強而出現「聖人體無」的觀念，開發出「理體性的本體觀念」。這兩種本體觀念的原型成為中國本體論思維的基礎。本文認為：先秦時代《老子》的本體觀念仍是「體質性本體」的思維，「理體性本體」的觀念開展於魏晉時代的王弼，爾後佛教思想傳入中國又將本體論思想提升到「萬法唯心」、「一真法界」的「唯心本體」，建立了中國本體論思想「由物向心」、「由他向自」的發展脈絡。本文並論述了佛教「空義」與中國兩種本體論之間的會通。另外本文又論述宋明六百年理學中的橫渠、明道、伊川、陽明等人的本體觀念基本上也幾乎是循著上述中國本體思想發展的模式開展，並提出明道「兼陰陽而言的道」為最足以代表中國本體論思想的典型。

This article discusses two types of metaphysics, basing on the distinction between mind and matter, in the history of Chinese thoughts. In Pre-Ch'in period(先秦時代), technology development made the booming of such a metaphysics that used the concept of chi(氣) to explain the mental and physical world. This 'ether-metaphysics'(體質性本體論), to which category Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi can be subsumed, had dominated the Pre-Ch'in and Han Dynasties and continued to influence the Chinese thought in the following five hundred years. Because the contemporary practical philosophical concern about how a leader could control the world had become urgent in the Wei Dynasty, the 'ether-metaphysics' had somehow been influenced and shifted to the opposite direction. This new metaphysical thinking emphasized on mind instead of previous physical chi. It can be called 'form-metaphysics'(理體性的本體論). Wang Bi(王粥) was the important founder of this thinking. Ever since then, the above-mentioned two types of metaphysics had became the foundation of all the metaphysics in Chinese thoughts. Kong(空), the metaphysical thinking from Buddhism which was introduced into China a little earlier than the age of Wang Bi, was just the combination of these two metaphysical thinking. So was the metaphysical thinking of Wang Yangming(王陽明) in the Ming Dynasty.