荀子哲學研究之解構與建構：以中日學者之嘗試與「誠」概念之探討為線索

Deconstruction and Reconstruction of the Xun Zi Research: Analysis on the Concept of Cheng (Trustfulness) with a Review

本文之目的在於經由對當代學者理解《荀子》哲學的兩組框架──「性惡論」和「天人之分」的解構之嘗試，來探索建構荀子哲學之另一種可能性。本文的探討主要分為兩個部分。在前半，先評述針對此問題的日本荀子研究成果，再與目前開創著《荀子》研究的新視野之三位臺灣學者──蔡錦昌、王慶光、以及劉又銘先生──的主要見解進行對話，將「性惡論」與「天人之分」兩項此核心主張之「核心」一詞放入括弧之後，進行以此兩大核心主張為主要內容的《荀子》哲學之解構。在後半，本文將以「性惡論」與「天人之分」的觀點無法掌握的《荀子‧不苟》中的「誠」概念為例，試圖發現《荀子》思想的整體性面貌，藉此探索重建更具有綜合性的《荀子》哲學體系之可能性。

This article aims to ”deconstruct” the two approaches which have overwhelmingly influenced the history of the research on Xun Zi's philosophy. In the first approach scholars have stuck to the idea of ”Human nature is bad” as of the core of Xun Zi's philosophy. In the second approach, scholars have urged that Xunzi had separated the sphere of men from that of Heaven. This article introduces critical viewpoints by three scholars on these two approaches, and then attempts to search for the third way to illuminate the characteristics of Xunzi philosophical system more systematically as a synthesizer of the pre-Qin Warring States' thoughts. For this purpose, it focuses on the significant role of the concept of cheng (truthfulness) in Xunzi's philosophical system on Heaven-human relationship, which has left in the dark by aforementioned two approaches. It delineates the analogical linkage by the concept of cheng between the expansion of virtue and the creation of all livings on earth. In Xun Zi's thought, an ideal ruler can assimilate himself into the process of its natural providence by means of his promoting virtuous power of cheng. Here, Xun Zi's image of ideal rules is an analogical synthesizer of these two spheres of Heaven and men, in stead of separating them into two different worlds.