中国古代形上学中数字观念的发展

数字观念的源起很早,《易》占可能是已知最早的源头,自先秦经两汉至宋明,数字观念问题意识有较大转变．先秦思想家以数字观念解释万物的生成,建构其宇宙观．汉代数字观念继续朝向神秘化、复杂化的方向发展,以卦气观念为核心的思想影响所及,几无处不在．为回应玄学和佛学的冲击,宋明儒者注重以数字观念建构形上学,既运用数字描述形质世界的秩序和意义,又处处强调数字所表述的形上本体的普遍性和超越性．而且,宋儒的数字形上学和汉儒的数字观念有若干传承的关系．

Development of the numerical concepts in ancient Chinese metaphysics

The concept of number originated very early and divination hy Zhouyi might be its earliest origin we know.From the pre-Qin period to the Ming dynasty,the consciousness of the numerical concept experienced great changes.Thinkers of the pre-Qin period interpreted the formation of the myriad of things by the numeri- cal concept and established their cosmology.The numerical concept continued to tend to mystery and complica- tion in the Han dynasty and the thought with the concept of Gua qi(a theory correlating the trigrams or hexa- grams to seasonal points) as the core almost permeated each realm.To respond to the challenges of Buddhism and metaphysics of Daoism,neo-Confucian scholars of the Song and Ming dynasties stressed to establish their metaphysics by numerical concept,i.e.describing the order and significance of the physical world by numbers, and always emphasize the universality and transcendence of the metaphysical noumenon described by numbers. In addition,numerical metaphysics of the Song neo-Confucianists inherited some aspects of the numerical con- cepts of the Han Confucianists.