富而教之，太古可復：王通教化思想芻論

Make Them Prosperous, Then Teach Them, and the Greatness of Antiquity Will Return: An Outline of Wang Tong's Thinking about Education

張沛(Zhang Pei)

《中國文學學報》 3期 (2012/12) Pp. 229-239

https://doi.org/10.6903/JCL.201212_(3).0011

摘要

本文分析《中說．立命篇》「賈瓊問」一章中記錄的王通（文中子）的教化思想（包括教化的方法與教化的目的）。此章分為兩個部分：第一部分討論「富而教之」問題，第二部分討論「淳樸可歸」或「太古可復」問題。二者共同指向一個問題：教化何以可能？王通的回答是：富而教之，太古可復。在他看來，生活富足是施行教化的前提和基礎，《詩》、《書》、《禮》、《樂》是教化的憑證與工具，復歸淳樸是教化的終極目的。這也是孔子以來所有儒家的共同信念，而王通援引道家學說，以老莊等異端之言證成儒家宗旨，可謂「圓機之士」，看似離經叛道，實為孔門干城。

關鍵字

王通 ； 《中說》 ； 儒家 ； 教化

並列摘要

This present paper makes a case study of Wang Tong's philosophy of education, as is deliberated in his annalects Zhongshuo (Teachings about the Middle), Book IX, Chapter 14. There, Wang Tong, as one of the greatest Confucians of his time, trying to revive traditional Confucian political philosophy, contends that education (which is moral by nature) comes only after social affluence is achieved, and then education will necessarily lead to the perfection of human nature and ＂the best government,＂ which reputedly appeared in the remote past. Wang Tong picks up this idea, which however has long been neglected since Buddhism began to prevail in the life of the Chinese people, and takes a prima facie unorthodox approach to justify his sterling Confucianism via Daoist teachings. In fact, he is trying to absorb the yi duan or non-Confucian thoughts, and in so doing, tacitly justifies the superiority of Confucianism to Daoism in their understanding of human nature and, based on this understanding, their expectation of human civilization. Wang Tong's method reminds us of what the New Confucians successfully practiced three centuries later. In hindsight, we may well say Wang Tong was not only the last of the ancient Confucians, but also the pioneer of the New Confucianism.

並列關鍵字

Wang Tong ； Zhongshuo ； Confucianism ； education