帛書《繫辭傳》「大恆」說

On the Expression Tai Heng in the Mawangdui Manuscript of the ＂Xici＂ Treatise

饒宗頤(Jao Tsung-i)

《中國文化研究所學報》 新1期 (1992/01) Pp. 85-98

https://doi.org/10.29708/JCS.CUHK.199201_(1).0007

並列摘要

In the ＂Xici＂ 繫辭 treatise of the Yi jing 易經 (Book of Changes) there is a sentence ＂易有太極＂. The Mawangdui 馬王堆 manuscript reads tai heng 大恆 for tai ji 太極, a reading not to be found in any transmitted version. Commentators have suspected that 恆 is a corruption of 極. In fact, the expression tai ji also appears in the ＂Fei gong＂ 非攻 chapter of the Mo zi 墨子 and the ＂Da zongshi＂ 大宗師 chapter of the Zhuang zi 莊子. In the Zhuang zi, tai ji is parallel to liu ji 六極. Hence tai ji is supposed to mean the heaven and liu ji the earth. As to the Mo zi, some commentators suggest that tai ji should mean si ji 四極. Anyway, tai ji here pertains to human activities and has nothing to do with the concept of tai ji in ＂太極生兩儀＂. The variant tai heng has in fact a profound meaning. This paper is a study of the meaning of heng from Yin 殷 and Zhou 周 times. The hexagram called Heng is found on some Yin object that has been unearthed, and the character 恆 is used as the name of a Yin emperor-Wang Heng 王恆 The character heng appears frequently in works of Chu 楚 which suggests that the concept of heng was popular in Chu and was of great prominence. Heng means ＂constancy＂. This abstract and fundamental concept has a long history. Tai heng as the origin of the universe is identical with da jing 大經, and has something in common with tai yi 太一. Therefore, tai heng in the ＂Xici＂ treatise is by no means a corruption.