李卓吾雜揉儒道法佛四家思想

Li Chih's Blending of Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism and Buddhism

王煜(Yuk Wong)

《中國文化研究所學報》 10卷下 (1979/07) Pp. 307-345

https://doi.org/10.29708/JCS.CUHK.197907_10(2).0004

並列摘要

Hsi K'ang the Neo-Taoist and Li Chih (1527-1602) the Miscellanist shared one thing in common. They were both descended from ancestors who had offended against high officials, and had settled far away from their native place after changing their surnames. Li's surname should have been Lin, just as his spiritual comrade Ho Hsin-yin (1517-1579) should have been Liang Yü-yüan. As rebels against some wicked authoritarians and hypocritic scholars, Hsi, Ho and Li were persecuted to death. Like Socrates, Li never attempted to escape. On the contrary, he preferred to obey the law of the land as if martyrdom could enhance immortality. Among the T'ai-chou School of Wang Yang-ming's disciples, Li Chih was most heterogeneous in thought. Some of his forefathers were Muslims. He met Matteo Ricci thrice, the first time in 1598. But he did not understand or accept Islam or Catholicism. Refuting Mencius's severe strictures on Moh Tzu, he supported the Mohist doctrines of universal love and funeral frugality. There are four main dimensions to his philosophy: 1. Confucianism-He enjoyed reading the Book of Changes at night with his bosom friend, Chiao Hung, who also revolted against the Ch'eng-Chu School of Neo-Confucianism. Li's Confucianism was more idealistic than rationalistic. Although he greatly admired Confucius, Mencius and Hsün Tzu, he denied the absolute authority of Confucius and the total reliability of the Confucian Classics. Still he accepted Mencius's theory of inherent goodness (hsing-shan) and Hsün Tzu's ethico-political realism. In an essay On the Child's Mind, he eulogized the original goodness of human nature. It was fame and profit that led scholar-officials toward avarice and brutality. But total freedom from selfishness was self-deception. Even sages could not help giving consideration to fame and benefit. Tung Chung-shu showed his pedantry in contrasting righteousness with profit, because righteousness should be determined according to universal welfare or the common good. Li's pragmatic and utilitarian approach probably encouraged the Yen-Li School of the Ch'ing dynasty. No wonder he preferred Yeh Shih and Ch'en Liang to Ch'eng I and Chu Hsi. For Li, it was possible to commit oneself without expecting beneficial consequences. Only pseudo-moralists refrained from mentioning profit. In Northern Sung, Fan Chung-yen urged Chang Tsai to study Confucainism instead of military strategy. Li Chih accused Fan of belittling military art, indispensable for national defence, and superior in importance to food and even trustworthiness. Sung Neo-Confucians regarded as petty and inferior those whose talent surpassed their moral virtue. Li valued talent to the extent of praising Ts'ao Ts'ao for treasuring talented but ugly people. Confucian officials withdrew from office to their parents' graves to observe the three year mourning. Like Mohist, Li condemned this practice as excessive. He revered Wang Chi, Wang Ken and Lo Chin-hsi among the Yang-ming School. Lo condemned the doctrine of ＂natural liang-chih＂ which overstressed easiness and simplicity at the expense of prolonged moral cultivation and industrious application. Lo returned from Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism to Yang-ming's moral idealism, but Li became a Ch'an Buddhist. 2. Taoism-Like Lao-Chuang, Li objected to strife after fame. It was stupid to sacrifice one's precious life to enhance one's status in the eyes of others, or to admonish sovereigns who were most unlikely to accept advice. However, he went against Taoism in ranking the heroic sacrifice of one's life as supreme among his so-called ＂five types of death.＂ Despite this, his literary and artistic criticisms were naturalistic rather than moralistic. He admired Juan Chi the Neo-Taoist only as a quasi-authentic recluse as he left traces behind in his withdrawal from the community. It was Feng Tao who attained perfect withdrawal without trace. Confucians denounced Feng for serving the rulers of four dynasties and one barbarian chief without feeling shame, whereas Li appreciated Feng's earnestness in restoring order and serving the people in various dynasties. Supreme withdrawal was non-withdrawal. Thus he employed Taoist dialectical paradox. Indifferent to religious Taoism that yearned for physical immortality, he cherished Chuang Tzu's ideal of spiritual freedom, Lao Tzu's ideal of non-interfering government and left-wing Taoist's rejection of Confucian proprieties and constitutions 3. Legalism-Li Chih was once wrongly accused of worshiping Ch'in Shih Huang the tyrant. Actually he praised benevolent rulers and sympathized with legalists whose heroic achievements doomed themselves to tragic death. But he described Chü-ko Liang as an warlike opportunist with over-broad interest and desires. 4. Buddhism-Inspired by Ch'an, he accepted any word, action and reputation as expedient devices to enlightenment. For Li, Sakyamuni renounced family life in order to be supramundane, while Confucius adopted family life to become supramundane. True Emptiness or Dharma-body rather than liang-chih was the transcendental ground of phenomena. Buddhists did not need the elimination of inevitable mental forms, images, ideas and thoughts. Different from Buddhists, he regarded the whole world as eternally dreaming. Influenced by Chuang Tzu, Seng Chao, T'ien-T'ai and Hua-yen Schools, he exclaimed, ＂Heaven and Earth have the same root as me, who excels me? Myriad things and I are one, who is inferior to me?＂ He emphasized the point that, Baddhism and socio-political affairs did not obstruct each other, According to the Hua-yen doctrine events (shih) and principles (li), or rather, function and substance, were inseparable in a harmonious whole. It was a pity that Li Chih pushed Buddhist semi-fatalism to the extent that it became radical determinism and mistook superstitious myths for historical facts.