The Principles of Exegetics and the Explanation of Difficult Words in the Analects
传统文化经典《论语》,语言简练,意蕴深刻,是涵盖了文史哲道德修养,而相关解 读和诠释文献不可胜数,然而部分疑难词句岐解议论纷纷,使得读者眼花缭乱.无所适 从。解读《论语》,首先要从句子的旁证和字的本意着手,必须从文献和训诂出发方可准 确地解释《论语》原意和语言文字。解读《论语》还需要找出文献依据来佐证自己的判 断。文献依据以共识的文献为主,《论语》的章节是旁证首选,其他同时代的典籍,尤其 是孔子的著作等文献。训诂学的最主要任务为通过探求古代的词义来解读古书,我们这里 通过训诂学的词和字义,加以上下文的旁证,试图解读《论语》几项疑难词语。“节用而 爱人,使民以时”中的‘人’与‘民’,我们认为‘人’不是指‘官’,‘民’不是指 ‘奴隶’。“民可使由之,不可使知之”中的‘使由使知’我们持着传统的说法,这两句 话不仅不表示孔子主张愚民政策,而且恰恰相反,它们是孔子“因材施教”“有教无类” 思想在政治上的体现。‘贤贤易色’中的‘易色’我们按照王引之的“审句例”和杨逢彬 的说法,这里的“易”字在应解释为“轻视”。这样就可以翻译为:‘尊重贤德,轻视美 色’。
The Analects of Confucius, a scripture representing traditional culture, has concise and meaningful language that could be interpreted into literature, history, and philosophical humanities for moral discipline. However, there is a countless number of the interpretation for the Analects making it difficult for readers to guess which interpretation would be good. Interpretation of the Analects should be focused on surrounding evidence and intention and use literature and exegesis for precision. This procedure can only shine light on meaning and value of the Analects. For decode of the Analects, self-analysis based on literature must be done first. Major goals for exegetics research are to study meaning of old characters and language so as to decode old books. This study is to decode some of complicated lines in the Analects using methods of exegetics. In the Analects, people(In, 人)does not mean organization(Gwan, 官) and people(Min, 民) does not mean slave. Based on studies of Wang Inji and Yang Bongmin,it is fair to interpret Yi(Yeok, 易) of Xianxianyise(Hyeon-hyeon-yeok-saek, 贤贤易色) as “negligence” and entire meaning of the phrase will be “Respect inner virtue and neglect outer beauty.”