《論語》「唐棣之華偏其反而」解

Interpreting “Tangdi zhi hua, pian qi fan er” in the Analects of Confucius

《論語‧子罕》篇末引逸詩「唐棣之華，偏其反而」以下之文，漢魏學者舊讀皆與上文「可與共學」等六句合為一章，以此為孔門論權道之說；而宋代蘇軾、范祖禹、朱熹等則認為「唐棣」以下當別為一章，與上文之義全無關涉，章各為義。漢、宋學者分章之異，關鍵所繫厥在於此詩「偏其反而」一句，是否即喻儒家「反經合道」經權之說。按「偏（翩）其反」之語，又見於《毛詩‧角弓》，顧歷來解者皆就《詩經》、《論語》本文分別釋之，未有合併兩文而考其義者。蓋古義湮薶，毛、鄭已不得其解，其後兩經注家莫不望文生訓，咸非其本義。本文之用意，一則對鄭玄、何晏、朱熹三家《論語》注義，提出檢討；再則梳理《爾雅》、《說文》以及漢、晉學者所述「唐棣」、「常棣」名實異同，以辨正王氏《經義述聞》、段玉裁《說文注》之疑誤；三則由先秦載籍及晉以前學者所述「唐棣」性狀，結合《毛詩》「騂騂角弓，翩其反矣」之語，考索連緜詞「偏反」之義。本文由漢、晉文獻中與「偏反」具同一「語義基因」之「翩翻」、「繽翻」、「繽紛」等詞例，溯洄尋索，考證《論語》、《毛詩》兩「偏（翩）反」之語，皆即「繽紛」之意。《論語》「偏其反而」既與「經權」之說無關，則「唐棣」之詩與「未可與權」即無關涉，此當從宋人分立二章為是。

At the end of “Zihan,” Book Nine of the Analects, is a passage whose first part is a saying of Confucius noting that people can all act alike according to prescribed norms but may not react alike under unforeseen circumstances. The second part is his comment on a man’s lament over not being able to see his beloved. In between there are these lyrics: “Tangdi zhi hua, pian qi fan er.” Some scholars maintain that they should be attached to the first part of the passages which ends with the phrase wei ke yu quan (unable to share the same unauthorized reaction as an expedience). This paper studies the Book of Poetry together with other Classics and finds that the term pianfan (偏反) that is made to mean “to deviate from the norm (and therefore to be expedient)” actually should be binfen (繽紛) (colourful and fluttering, a description of the Tangdi flowers). With this discovery it is clear that the lyrics should be attached to the second part of the passage and the two parts should be two separate chapters of Book Nine.