周敦颐的《太极图说》、《易》象数及西方有关学说

本文从《易》象数的角度来解释周敦颐的《太极图说》与《通书》,认为这种象数的“二对生”的区别性特征是周氏学说的内在发动结构,由此而提出一些很不同于流行的“宇宙论加上伦理学”的解释模式的思路。在一些被长久争论的问题上,比如“太极与无极的关系”、“太极与两仪的关系”、“诚与太极的关系”、“中与太极和诚的关系”,都提出了新的看法。在这新的理解方式中,周敦颐的《太极图说》就不止是程朱陆王的一个含糊的先导,而是融合了儒道释的思想精华,而又有着自己独特的思想原发力与中和的精微境界的划时代的哲理学说,其蕴义(比如超出理气二分的原本发生论)并未被后来的理学家们穷尽。本文最后将周敦颐的思想与西方的毕达哥拉斯及莱布尼兹的学说进行对比,一方面揭示“象数”在伟大的哲理传统中的关键作用,另一方面又表明中西两大传统之间存在的深刻差异在结构上的原因。

Zhou Dunyi's Explanations of Tai Ji Diagram, the Image - Numbers of the Changes, and the Related Doctrines in the West

This paper interprets Zhou Dunyi's Explanations of Tai Ji Diagram as well as his Essay on Transforming ( Tong Shu ) through the perspective of the image - numbers of the Changes . It shows that the "distinctive features" of so - called "production by opposition" function as the inner dynamic structure of Zhou's thoughts. With this, some new interpretations are proposed, quite differing from the prevailing explanatory mode of "cosmology plus ethics". They relate to such long debated questions as: the relations between taiji (the ultimate) and wuji (none - ultimate), taiji and liangyi (two poles), cheng (sincerity) and taiji, and that between the middle (zhong) and taiji as well cheng. In the new horizon, Zhou's Explanations of Tai Ji Diagram is not merely a vague prelude of the later prevailing doctrines (Cheng, Zhu, Lu, Wang) , but epoch - breaking thoght that has its own distinctive originality and subtle thinking quality. What it contains is not exhausted by the following neo - Confucians. In the final part, the paper compares Zhou with Pythagorean and Leibniz' thoughts, to manifest the key roles of " image - number" in forming the great philosophical traditions and the structural reasons for the differences between Chinese and Western traditions.