孟子「天下之言性章」試釋

A Textual Analysis of Book 4 Part B Article 26 of Mencius

在《孟子》書中，〈離婁篇下〉第廿六章的文義較難理解。傳統的注釋家多認為本章是孟子以「順性」明性善之旨。然而以「順」訓「利」，卻不符《孟子〉全書的慣例，且以「順性」言人性本善，亦違反孟子所強調的「廣充」修養的工夫論。此外，孟子總以仁義言性善，何以於此章卻引用禹之「行所無事」以言人性？筆者通過排列、對比與文獻分析的方法，再配合孟子的整套哲學思想，認為本章的焦點在「智」而不在「性」。文章首先分析趙岐、朱熹、焦循三位注孟權威的說法，從而指出有待酌斟的問題，然後以毛奇齡、裴學海及徐復觀的說法，說明本章並非孟子自道性善之旨。繼而通過闡釋徐復觀以「生理上的要求」訓「利」的涵義，從而說明孟子為何要以禹之「行水」為例。最後總結出孟子此章的主旨在於闡明用智的方法與態度。

Mencius's View on Cleverness: The article No.26 of Book 4 Part B of Mencius, is difficult to understanding. Traditional scholars considered that Mencius expressed again his own point of view of human nature in this article. For, Mencius argued that human nature is good, because human nature is nothing other than benevolence, righteous, rites and wisdom. Therefore these scholars suggested that this article merely recommends people to conform to the natural tendency. In other words, they thought that conformation is enough. However, this interpretation is contradicted to the basic idea of Mencius. Mencius usually mentions benevolence and righteous when talking about the goodness of human nature. Why is this article so extraordinary? Why Mencius only mentions cleverness when he talks about the human nature in this article? What is the relation between guided water and human nature? There are two major parts of the theory of human nature of Mencius: one is the goodness in born, the other is to extend the good germ. So to conform the inborn goodness is not enough, we must to extend the goodness day by day, moment by moment. So, the traditional scholars' emphasis on conformation is not enough. In other words, their explanation is contradicting to the major view of Mencius. After examine the opinions of three traditional scholars and analysis the text very carefully, it is found that Mencius expressed instead his attitude towards cleverness in this article. Contemporary scholar Professor XU Fu Guan discovered that Mencius dislikes the clever men because they use the cleverness on their own benefits. They use their cleverness and intelligent skillfully to take the advantage in a dishonest way. This behavior disgusted Mencius. If the clever men use their experience and knowledge in a proper way, like Emperor Yu guiding the water, their knowledge would indeed be great and Mencius will not dislike them. Therefore the focus of this article is on the attitude of cleverness but not on the human nature.