從禮、法內涵共通性論孔子法思想及其現代性意義

儒家思想作為中國文化的主流，長久以來具有舉足輕重地位。從抽象道德思想到具體司法審判，儒家每執牛耳地位，引領現實社會的發展。遺憾的是相對於傳統經學、子之學，「儒家法律思想」乃是一個起步甚晚，開發亦少的領域。箇中原因甚為複雜，包括「思維傾向」、「文化關懷」等因素。倘若缺乏西方法律文化衝擊，則「儒家法思想」乃至「中國法學」是否能夠成為今日學術關注對象，恐怕仍是未知之數。這個特殊背景產生一個利弊相倚的結果：從正面來看，透過西方深厚的法律傳統，我們得以建立一個宏觀視野與系統架構，抉擇儒家法思想及其衍生機制的優缺；而其不幸之處在於：由於此一學科興起於憂患之時，它不僅缺乏如傳統經學研究的「神聖情感」，反而立基在知識份子對於固有文化的反思與出離。緣此之故，以儒家「禮教」思想為核心的法律理念，遂受到眾多學者的嚴厲抨擊。這些批評固然指出儒家某些本質性的缺陷，但也不乏對於「法」本質認識不足所生的誤解。本文係以孔子為考察對象，首先透過對於「禮」、「法」內涵的對比分析，開顯儒家「法思想」的積極意義；同時更在此一基礎上，指陳孔子法思想之「時代性」與「積極性」，從而釐清許多似是而非的批判。

關鍵字

儒家；孔子；禮法；法思想；中國法理學

並列摘要

Confucian thoughts have been the mainstream in Chinese culture and have been playing the decisive role for centuries. From the abstract morality to concrete judicial judgments, Confucian thoughts always play the important role and lead to critical social developments. However, compraring to the traditional studies on Jingxue(經學) and Tzuxue(子學), the studies on the Confucias' idea of law is still an field without suffcicent investigations. Reasons of causing this kind of situation are complicated, including ”thinking tendency” and ”culture care” etc. It is an open question of whether the Confucias' idea of law and ”Chinese Faxue” (中國法學) are able to be focal point in academics if there were not the cultural impact from the western.This special background results in advantages and disadvantages. In one side, the establishment of macroscopic view and systematic schema is dependent on the deeper reflection according to the western legal traditions and this reflection will reveal the advantage and disadvantage of Confucisan thoughts. In the other side, this discipline lacks the ”holy feelings”, which Jingxue study owns and it sets the basis on the intelligentsia's reflections and abandonments of the traditional culture because it develops in the area of tribulation. Therefore, legal claims on the basis of the heart of Confucian ”Lijiao” have been severely criticized. Undoubtedly, some of criticisms point out essential defects in Confucian thoughts but some of them are based on misunderstanding on Confucian thoughts. The misunderstanding is due to the lack of correct understanding the essence of law in Confucian thoughts. So this article focuses on the Confucian thoughts. It explains the positive meaning of Confucius' idea of law by analyzing and contrasting the connotation of ”Li” and ”Fa”, indicates the contemporary meaning of Confucius' idea of law and it's ”positiveness”, and clearifies some specious criticisms.