“天地君亲师”源流考

“天地君亲师”是中国传统社会中最重要的精神信仰和象征符号,但对其表达方式和排列顺序的演变过程,学术界的了解并不全面。经过系统梳理史料,我们认为,“天地君亲师”的思想发端于《国语》,形成于《荀子》,在西汉思想界和学术界颇为流行。东汉时期,在《太平经》中最早出现了形式整齐的“天地君父师”的说法。北宋初期,“天地君亲师”的表达方式已经正式出现。明朝后期以来,崇奉“天地君亲师”在民间广为流行,把它作为祭祀对象也已经比较普遍。清雍正初年,第一次以帝王和国家的名义,确定“天地君亲师”的次序,并对其意义进行了诠释,特别突出了“师”的地位和作用。从此,“天地君亲师”就成为风行全国的祭祀对象。民国时期,“天地君亲师”又衍变出“天地国亲师”和“天地圣亲师”两种形式。

Headstream of the "Heaven- Earth- Sovereign- Parent- Teacher" Ethic Order

HEAVEN,EARTH,SOVEREIGN,PARENT,and TEACHER are the most important spiritual belief and symbolic emblems in traditional Chinese society,but the evolving process of expressive means and the order one after another has not been fully explicated.My systematic study of the relevant historical data reveals that the "Heaven-Earth-Sovereign-Parent-Teacher" idea first appeared in Guo Yu(Formal Language),came into shape in the Collective Works of Xun Zi,and was considerably popular in Western Han Dynasty.In Taiping Jing(Peace Classics) of the Eastern Han Dynasty,there appeared the complete mention of it,which then took such a formal order in the early North Song Dynasty.The worship of it since Ming Dynasty was popular in a wide spread among civilians and it was treated as a feting target.The order was set in terms of Emporor Yong Zheng and his Dynasty in his early reign,and the concept was defined and the connotation interpreted,where TEACHER was offered a unique status and function.It therefrom became a nation-wide feting object.But during the Republic of China(1911-1949) two forms were developed: "Heaven-Earth-Nation-Parent-Teacher" and "Heaven-Earth-Sage-Parent-Teacher".