從性善論到泛性善論

Abstract

The classical Confucian doctrine of good human nature was just as far as human beings concerned. But the Neo-Confucians starting from the Sung dynasty had developed a doctrine of good nature of the myriad things. This change has been influenced by Buddhist way of thinking. Both Zhang Zai and two Cheng brothers had this doctrine of good nature of the myriad things. Zhu Xi followed this doctrine and suggested the view that different things participate the same principle while have various material forces in his commentary on the Explanation of the Diagram of the Supreme Polarity (Taijiyu shuo) by Zhou Dunyi. But we can also find the two contradictory views, one of which said that different things have same material forces but various principles, in Zhu Xi`s Collected Commentaries on the Four Books (Sishu Jizhu). This article argues the seemingly contradiction of the two views is exactly the outcome of the development from the doctrine of good nature of human beings till the doctrine of good nature of the myriad things. It was the later that made Zhu Xi face a difficulty when he interpreted the relevant chapter in Mencius. According to this article, for Zhu Xi, the task of his Collected Commentaries on the Four Books was not reading into some creative thoughts of his own, but let the doctrines of Neo-Confucians adapt as far as possible to the original thought of the Confucian texts. Accordingly, the view that different things have same material forces but various principles, cannot be taken as the thought of Zhu Xi himself, but only the result of interpreting Mencius based on the doctrine of good nature of the myriad things.