"神道设教"说考释

“神道设教”学说滥觞于远古时代,殷周之际人们开始对宗教祭祀的教化功能进行思考,至春秋时代逐渐酝酿成熟,战国时期方提出了“神道设教”这一命题,从而消解了敬天尊祖的传统宗教与自然哲学的紧张。它具有陶冶百姓,凝聚人心,纯洁风俗,稳定秩序,传承文明的重要作用,影响深远。

A textual research on and interpretation of "instructing people by a spirit-like way"

The assertion of "instructing people by a spirit-like way" can be traced back to the remote antiquity. At the turn of the Yin (1300-1046 B. C. ) and Zhou (1046-256 B. C. ) dynasties, people began to think over the instructive functions of religious sacrifices offering, and till the Spring and Autumn period (770-476 B. C. ) this thinking gradually became mature and the proposition of "instructing people by a spirit-like way" was raised in the Warring State period, and thus the tension between natural philosophy and traditional religions in which dwells the reverence of the heaven and ancestors was dissolved. This way of instruction can refine people's sentiment, unite people's heart, stabilize the social order, and transmit civilizations, having exerted far-reaching influences.