論譚嗣同的變法與復古

On Tan Sitong's Reform and Returning to Antiquity

譚嗣同乃戊戌變法中舉足輕重的人物，其思想的複雜多變，致使後世學者或視之為辛亥革命的前驅、五四思想的先導，或視之為近似與五四針鋒相對的新儒家，同時兼具革命之成分，乃介於革命與改革兩階段的中間人物。本文為釐清嗣同思想的定位，特別針對其「變法亦復古」的論點作深入的討論。筆者認為，其說在表面上雖貌似鄭觀應等人的中體西用論，但在根本觀念中，由於嗣同採用船山的器體道用說，進一步否定三綱，實已從核心的部分徹底瓦解傳統的中體說，與晚清以來的變法論有很大的不同；而其所以表里不一，原因在於嗣同欲以此說為實行變法的方便法門，藉此名目以減少變法的阻力，其實並非真正想要復古。其對孔教雖有一定程度的肯定，但其強烈抨擊以君權為首的三綱倫理，兼以慨然赴死的舉動，具體的說明嗣同確實想要藉由革命的手段來達成他所希冀的太平之世。我們很難用既成的框架來定位他，嗣同在變法論上跨越前賢，行動上亦領先群倫，但革命卻又並非他最終極的目標，如此多樣的心思與面貌，著實提供了後世一個深入討論的空間。

Tan Sitong was an important person in 1898 Reform. There are various evaluations to his sophisticated thoughts. Some researchers regard him as an avant-garde in 1911 Revolution and May Fourth Movement, while others regard him as a revolutionary Neo-Confucian, who is opponent to May Fourth Movement. In this essay, the author argued Tan's thought on 'reform and returning to antiquity' in order to orient his thought clearly. According to the author, even though his thought looks like Zheng Guanying's 'Zhongti Xiyong' (Chinese learning for substance, western learning for function), the root of Zheng's idea was disintegrated by Tan's option on Wang Fuzhi's 'Qiti Daoyong' (The tools for substance and the way for function) to deny the value of the Three Bands. So, Tan was really different from the studies on reforms in late Qing. He did not want to return to the ancient Chinese systems. However, the reason why he proposed this point is to reduce the obstacles to reforms. He made the supreme sacrifice for reforms, and criticized strongly the Three Bands, in which the primary band is the right of the empire ruler, even though he affirmed Confucius thought. It is difficult to judge whether Tan's thought is reformative or revolutionary, not only because his opinion preceded the reformers in his time and he was the first person of making sacrifice of reformation, but also revolution was not his final goal. It states concretely that Tan planned to reach his final goal of the Age of Great Peace by revolution.