比较孟子和朱熹的水意象运用
Comparison of Mencius’ and Zhu Xi’s Theory in the Perspective of Water Imagery

宋明理学与孔孟思想有一脉相承的基因，在吸收了外来文化的影响下，理学开创了儒学文化发展的新方向。集大成者朱熹(1130~1200)在其著作《四书章句集注》中为《孟子》注疏。在解释孟子思想的同时，朱熹更侧重于明晰自己理论的正当性和系统性，并进一步阐释他的“月映万川”理论，推广对“理”的探讨。在此过程中，孟子理论中相对灵活开放的观点以及未完善的逻辑所构建起的可讨论性空间逐渐坍缩。本文通过比较二人对水意象的运用，挖掘孟子和朱熹二人对世界构成认知上细微但却引发显著性变化的差别。进一步探讨朱熹如何将孟子理论体系化、复杂化，并在此过程中不断收窄议题边界，以一种相对隐形、细微的陈述转变方式，缩小了儒学思想中对“心性论”和“宇宙观”等理论的讨论空间，限制了其开放性和发展性，以不断确立理论的权威性。这一定程度上导致了宋明理学思想的僵化。
The Neo-Confucianism has inherited from Confucius and Mencius, and has created a new direction in the development of Confucian culture by absorbing the influences of foreign cultures. Influential Neo-Confucian philosopher Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130~1200), commented on Mencius 《孟子》in his book, Commentaries on the Four Books 《四书章句集注》. While explaining Mencius’s thought, Zhu Xi actually focused on clarifying the legitimacy and systematicity of his own theories, and used this to further explain his statement “the moon reflects in myriad rivers (Yue Ying Wan Chuan 月映万川)” and promote Neo-Confucianism’s theory of “reason (理)”. In the process, the discussion space built up by the relatively flexible and open viewpoints as well as the imperfect logic of Mencius’s theory gradually collapsed. This essay compared their use of water imagery, to uncover the subtle but significant differences between Mencius and Zhu Xi’s perceptions of the composition of the world. By doing this, this essay further discussed how Zhu Xi systematised and complicated Mencius’s theories, continued to narrow the boundaries of the topics of subjectivistic theory and cosmology, by means of an invisible, subtle shift in presentation, limit its openness and development, and establish the authority of the theory. This essay argued that this led, to some extent, to the rigidity of the Neo-Confucianism in later times.