摘要
“天下人”在中国文化中是一个非常重要却常被忽视的伦理角色。首先,“天下人”呈现为个体对于“天下”的自在又自为的自我意识。这种自我意识并非囿于自我内心世界的狭隘意识,而是开放自己,使其在公共性群体生活中获得极高伦理认同的自我意识。其次,从先秦至晚清,君权天授的观念始终盘亘在中国古人心中,几千年未曾根本改变。在这种政治意识形态的影响下,“天下人”的伦理认同往往需以王道政治为前提。只有充分重视民心,统治者才能获得天命,其政权才有合法性。最后,“天下人”的权利与义务体现在地理与文明两个维度。从地理维度看,“天下人”的权利体现在共享“天下”这一公共性的自然资源,义务表现为保护人赖以生存的自然环境或地球资源;从文明维度看,“天下人”的权利体现在共享“天下”这一开放性、兼容性的文明共同体,义务表现为对中国伦理型文化的坚守。
“A human being all over the world(tianxia ren天下人)”is a very important but often neglected ethical role in Chinese culture.First of all,“a human being all over the world”appears as an individual's free and self-cultivated consciousness of tianxia.This self-consciousness is not the kind that is confined to the narrow consciousness of the inner world of oneself,but the one which opens oneself and obtains high ethical identity in the public community life.Secondly,from the pre-Qin to late Qing Dynasty,the view of the divine power of emperor has always been in the mind of ancient Chinese people,and has not fundamentally changed for thousands of years.Under the influence of such political ideology,the ethical identity of“a human being all over the world”often needs to be based on the premise of benevolent governance.Only by paying full attention to the people's will can the ruler obtain the mandate of heaven and his regime can obtain legitimacy.Finally,the rights and obligations of the“a human being all over the world”are embodied in both geographical and civilized dimensions.In the geographical dimension,the right of“a human being all over the world”is embodied in sharing the public natural resources of tianxia,and the obligation is embodied in protecting the natural environment or earth resources on which people rely for survival.In the civilized dimension,the right of“a human being all over the world”is embodied in sharing the open and compatible civilization community of tianxia,and the obligations is embodied in adhering to Chinese ethical culture.
作者
沈宝钢
SHEN Bao-gang(School of Marrism,Nanjing Normal University,Nanjing 210023,China)
出处
《前沿》
2023年第5期117-127,共11页
Forward Position
关键词
天下人
伦理角色
民心
王道
文明共同体
a human being all over the world
ethical role
people's will
benevolent governance
civilization community
