知我者其天乎 : 《史記》天人關係的一種理解模型

本文試在早期中國語境下重探《史記》中的天人關係問題。文本内外的多重聲音與互文關聯顯示，《史記》怠於討論“天命”這一闡釋政治合法性的傳統觀念，而是更積極地探究“天道”這一開放性命題，尤其關切個體意義上的天人互動可能。基於此，《史記》的部分篇章試探性地綴合並構建了一種交流性的天人關係，將二者置於宇宙論和道德雙重意義上自洽的觀念圖景之中。在此圖景中，“天”不適用於某種生殺予奪、賞善罰惡的君王式主宰模型，而是被設想爲一種超然在上、清而不濁、有德有序且可爲個體所接通的存在狀態。同時，根據同類相應這一漢代流行的思想原理，賢人君子既可在精神上自繫於“天”且爲其所“知”，亦可被具有近似道德品質的社會成員所理解和紀念。這一理解模型紓解了某種同樣在《史記》中被前景化的天人緊張關係 - 即由良人所遭遇的不公與不幸所引發的關於“天”之道德屬性的難題。在帝國早期的政治文化環境下，《史記》使“天”爲正在崛起的以賢良之士爲典範的知識階層提供身份和信念的基礎，將其維繫於死者與生者之間的集體記憶和文化認同之中 - 是即《史記》信念之所托。

This essay revisits and contextualizes the embedded Heaven-Human relationship in the Shiji in the context of early China. By examining the multiple voices and intertextual correspondence within and beyond the text, it argues that the Shiji is reluctant to assess the traditional conception of the "Mandate of Heaven" as an interpretative tool sustaining political legitimacy. Instead, the Shiji actively engages in exploring the "Way of Heaven", a topic open to debate, with a main focus on the possibilities of Heaven-Human interactions on an individual basis. As such, parts of the Shiji tentatively compose and constitute a communicative mode of Heaven-Human correspondence, which positions the two areas within a cosmologically and morally coherent mental picture. In this picture, Heaven is not cast into the model of sovereign monarch in the specific sense of maintaining order over rewards and punishments but rather imagined as a transcendent, pure, virtuous, well-ordered, and individually accessible status of being. Moreover, under the prevalent Han notion of homogeneous affinity, worthy individuals can be spiritually connected to the "understanding" Heaven and also recognized and remembered by other members of society with moral similarity. This interpretative mode resolves a tension between Humans and Heaven, which had also been foregrounded, wherein the moral attribute of Heaven became problematic because of the unjust suffering of worthy people. In the milieu of early imperial political culture, the Shiji rendered Heaven a foundational source sustaining the identity and beliefs of a rising intellectual community modeled on decent individuals, solidifying their connections through the collective memory and cultural commitments among the dead and the living. This is the positive view of the Shiji.