牟宗三對「道家」及其政治思想的詮釋

Mou Zongsan’s Interpretation of“Daoism”and its Political Thought

從思想史的角度來說，作為流派而言的「道家」始自漢代，漢人所言之道家則指黃老，而且此一黃老思想跟政治治理之術密切相關。牟宗三則認為道家主張超越已成虛文的周禮，是超人文的自由精神之表現，這種精神修養只有老莊才能達到，漢人所言之黃老思想則未被牟宗三納入道家哲學的範疇。牟宗三眼中的道家是「老莊」而非「黃老」，固然展現了他對道家哲學的深入闡釋，但在政治思想的詮釋方面也因而受到侷限。尤其自從1973年馬王堆黃老帛書出土後，相關的研究已經揭示「老莊」和「黃老」自戰國中期以來彼此交錯流衍的思想圖像。在政治思想方面，黃老更已經擺脫老莊隱逸的傾向，走出個人精神修養的向度，關於公共治理的規範來源與制度設想均有建樹。如今我們回顧牟宗三的道家詮釋，若能補上黃老道家的用世面向，對於了解道家思想全貌有其重要意義。

This article takes Mou Zongsan (牟宗三) as an example to discuss the historical and philosophical significance of contemporary scholars’interpretations of“Daoism”with“Lao Zhuang”(老莊). From Mou Zongsan’s point of view, the Daoist spiritual cultivation presented by thought of“Lao Zhuang”not only surpasses the humanistic world of rites of Zhou (周禮), but also shows the spirit of freedom. While this view has profound insights, it also has obvious deficiencies. In Mo’s interpretation,“Huang Lao”(黃老) and it’s political thoughts have no place, which ignores the continuous historical process of interaction between“Lao Zhuang”and“Huang Lao”since the Warring States period. Because Mou Zongsan’s interpretation of Daoism is limited to the level of“Lao Zhuang’s”spiritual cultivation, it will be impossible to see the close intertwining between“Lao Zhuang”and“Huang Lao,”especially in political thought. In terms of political thought,“Huang Lao”had already shaken off the tendency of“Lao Zhuang’s”reclusiveness and stepped out of the direction of personal spiritual cultivation, and had made contributions to the sources of norms and institutional concepts of public governance. Nowadays, when we review Mou Zongsan’s interpretation of Daoism, if we can supplement“Huang Lao’s”Daoist orientation, it will be significant for us to understand the whole picture of pre-Qin Daoist thought.