荀子의 造語: 僞, 禮法, 後王

Abstract

The objective of this study is to elucidate implications of three words coined by Xun Zi─Acquired Nature (僞), Ritual and Law (禮法), and Later Kings (後王)─and examine the purposes for which they were coined. The following describes Xun Zi’s rhetorical intentions to grant authority to Confucian knowledge that he advocated during the late period of the Warring States. First, the Chinese character wei (僞) has a negative and passive meaning in all 24 historical documents from the Warring States period except in “Xun Zi”. Xun Zi imbued his philosophical value and status in the character. Some say that the background of this phenomenon was Xun Zi’s response to the philosophy of Chuang Tzu’s. Second, the coinage of Ritual and Law (禮法) was examined from two perspectives. One is to explain the theory of courtesy wholeness (禮法一體論) with figures of speech, and the other is to explain standardization of courtesy wholeness (禮法一體論) based on synonymous compound words. This is an attempt to find philosophical meaning from linguistic examinations. From this, we can see that ‘ritual (禮)’ and ‘law (法)’ form a special category in which the two cannot be separated from each other, and that Xun Zi established a completed formula of Ritual and Law (禮法). The purpose was to convince his audience that his ideas had no theoretical or philosophical deficiency compared with other Confucian schools. Third, Later Kings (後王) is one of Xun Zi’s unique concepts. He coined the word to grant authority to his theories. Xun Zi granted status equal to Ancient Kings (先王) to his ideal king, Later Kings, and created images accordingly. These findings show that Xun Zi coined the three words to establish ideas of Confucianism suitable for the new era. He generated a new area of knowledge with newly coined terms that were not used in Confucian schools before. That Xun Zi coined new words with specific purposes indicates that he knew how knowledge was generated. It also means that he understood that knowledge can be powerful when it is near to the king and political powers. Xun Zi needed a strategy to use Confucian knowledge to express his thoughts and theories, and he coined words as an important tool in writing.