《春秋》書法與「義」在言外——比事見義與《春秋》學史研究

The Writing of Chun Qiu and its Denotation: A Discussion on the Inter-Comparisons for Truth-Meaning Versus Abandoning the Commentaries to Focus on the Classics

類比對比相關史事，修飾鏈接相關辭文，如此可以體現《春秋》「推見至隱」之義。孔子作《春秋》，所修者主要為其辭，由事來定辭，藉辭來見事。《春秋》有筆削去取，故據事直書，往往如顧炎武《日知錄》所謂「於敘事中寓論斷」。朱子以為《春秋》「據實直書，具文見意」，知據事憑文，而其義可見。孔子竊取之「義」，在屬辭比事之運用下，其特色為「蓋有言外之意」，但「都不說破」。本文聚焦於屬辭比事，綜考《春秋》學史，提出考求《春秋》書法之法門有三：其一，據比次史事以見義；其二，因連屬辭文而顯義；其三，緣探究終始而示義，所謂「求聖人之意於聖人手筆之書」者是。三者相互為用，可以捨傳求經，足以考求《春秋》之微辭隱義。為篇幅所限，今但舉比事見義，以論證可以「無傳而著」之理。

The core of Chun Qiu was to reflect on the thoughts and rhetoric of Confucius based on certain essential historical events. The most valuable component of this book is that in writing the book, Confucius placed particular emphasis on producing a text based on real events, so that the text that he wrote could vividly reflect and illustrate both the incidents he discussed as well as his teaching. Gu Yan-wu, the author of “Ri Zhi Lu”, in analyzing and commenting on the book stated that judgments were made within narration. In addition, Zhu Xi believed that Chun Qiu not only reflected the truth, but that there were also theories and lessons behind the text. One of the features of the book is the hidden message written between the lines. This “hidden message” was, in fact, the real message that Confucius tried to communicate to his readers, but it was one that could not be openly stated. This study was set up to analyze the writing skills of Chun Qiu: Shu Ci Bi Shi (historical comparison to appraise things). There are three ways to examine the rhetorical methods employed in Chun Qiu: (1) examine the significance of more than one historical event; (2) link the relevant parts of the text to find the “true” meaning; (3) explore the complete text to reveal the “true” meaning. Through the combination of all three ways, we may be able to abandon the commentaries and focus on the classics, and hence explore the hidden meaning of even a simple text. Due to the limitation of space, I will only exemplify the first of the three rhetorical methods listed above.