《太極圖說》「無極而太極」爭議再探

Exploration of the argument of “Tai Chi ofLimitless” in the “ Explanations of Tai JiDiagram”

周敦頤《太極圖說》「無極而太極」歷來存在著「太極」、「無極」究竟何者為宇宙本體的爭議，為試圖弭平此一爭論，此文借助詮釋學視域的觀念，認為既然無法在周敦頤著作中得出他對「無極」一詞有特別的詮釋說明，則周敦頤對「無極」的理解應該是保持著此一名詞的時代用法。故此文選擇自傳統文獻、唐宋文人及《雲笈七籤》等相關文本，考察這些書籍對「無極」一詞的使用意涵，由此還原北宋時對於「無極」的詮釋意義。進而發現在北宋以前皆未將「無極」轉變成宇宙本體的名詞，主要仍用於針對形而上空間無窮無盡的形容。由是推論周敦頤既然未針對「無極」進行創造性的詮釋活動，那麼他對「無極」概念的接受當是受到詮釋傳統的影響，並未產生哲學本體的認知，從而得出「無極而太極」的解釋當是以太極為主的一元本體論思想。

Zhou Dun Yi’s “Tai Chi of Limitless” in the ” Explanations of Tai Ji Diagram” always has the argument of whether “Tai Ji” or “Wu-Ji” is the basic of the universe. In order to settle this argument, this article takes the perspective concept of the Hermeneutics, and believes that since it is no way to obtain the special illustration of “Wu-Ji” of Zhou Dun Yi from his works, it implies that Zhou Dun Yi’s understanding of “Wu-Ji” keeps the fashion way of using this term. Hence this article chooses related documents from traditional documents、scholars of the Tang and Sung Dynasties and “Yun Ji Qi Qian”, to observe the meaning of “Wu-Ji” in these books, thus to restore the meaning of “Wu-Ji” in the Sung Dynasty. It also discovers that no terms convert “Wu-Ji” to the essence of the universe before the Northern Sung Dynasty, and mainly focus on the metaphysical description of unlimited space. Thus this article has the conclusion that since Zhou Dun Yi has not any creative explanations of “Wu-Ji”, then his concept of Wu-Ji should has been influenced by traditional explanation, and has no cognition of the essence of philosophy. His explanation of Tai Chi of Limitless is a monism believe that bases on “Tai Chi”.