《論語》中的疾病及其隱喻

Illness and its Metaphor in The Analects of Confucius

疾病是古今人類共通的生存挑戰，也是孔子謹慎面對的情況之一。《論語》屢論及疾病，扼要地記載古人面對疾病所採取的行動與態度。疾病作為非常事態，對個人生命造成危害，並影響人際互動。古人基於經驗發展出應對的衛生與治療措施，甚至求助於信仰活動，疾病可謂個人、人我、人與超越界的關係叢結點。疾病除作為身體疾病之外，也以隱喻的面貌出現於《論語》。孔子談論人的德行修養與道德議題時，數次以疾病為喻論人的道德缺失，不僅人的身體會生病，道德也可能生病，皆應謹慎應對。本文試就《論語》中的身體疾病解析其間開顯的關係向度，並援借當代隱喻理論，紬繹《論語》道德疾病的隱喻，推敲孔子德行修養之道。

Illness is a survival challenge for people at all times. It is also one of the situations Confucius cautiously dealt with. In The Analects of Confucius, illness was touched upon numerous times with brief documentation of the actions and attitude that ancients adopted in the face of it. Illness is an abnormal situation that threatens individual's life and affects interpersonal interactions. Based on experience, the ancients developed corresponding hygiene and treatment methods. They would even turn to religious activities for help. Hence illness could be considered as the confluence of person, others and self, and the human-transcendence relationship. In addition to physical diseases, illness presents itself as a metaphor in The Analects of Confucius. Confucius used illness as a metaphor for deficiency of virtue a few times when he talked about virtue cultivation and moral topics. It is not only the human body but virtue also can be affected by“illness.”Both must be treated with caution. This study shall analyze the dimensions of relationship presented by physical illness in The Analects of Confucius as well as to clarify the metaphor of moral illness in The Analects of Confucius with the help of modern metaphor theory in order to explain how virtue is cultivated according to Confucius.