法象与性情:子张之儒的从政之道

子张之儒是先秦儒家重要一派,将出土文献、传世文献和相关的理论作品串联成篇,可窥其思想演变之脉络。具体讲,该学派在孔子殁后致力于发扬孔门从政思想,逐渐构造出一套较为完善的政治哲学理论。其核心纲领可用“居敬而行简”概括,其中“居敬”属于从政者自身修养方面,以追求君子“威仪”为目标;“行简”则属于从政者莅民为政方面,以治理百姓为内容。在此理论框架之下,子张及其后学还概括出“虑以下人”“五美四恶”“敬刑为德”“明于礼乐”“知民之性”等理念,并试图回答“政治是什么”“政治何以可能”等哲学问题,客观上促成了当时学界关于人性善恶之讨论。

Confucian Political Philosophy Represented by Zi Zhang

The Confucian school represented by Zi Zhang was one of the pre-Qin Confucian schools who paid more attention to the theory of politics.The theoretical program of the school can be summarized by“Adherence to Respect and Simplify Administration”.The former belongs to the self-cultivation of politicians,and its goal was to pursue the“Wei Yi(威仪)”of the gentleman.The latter belongs to the specific administrative mode of the politicians,and it was based on the way to govern the people.Under this plan,the pre-Qin Confucian represented by Zi Zhang also discussed the following themes:“Consider the needs of the people”,“Respect the elite,tolerate the public”,“Five virtues and four evils”,“Do not give up punishment to achieve Morality”,“Actively understand the human nature of the people”.The school of Zi Zhang also tried to answer philosophical questions such as“what is politics”and“how politics is possible”,which objectively contributed to the discussion about the good and evil of human nature at that time.