论先秦诸子的分派问题

由于出土文献的触发,近些年来,关于先秦诸子的分派问题重新引起了学者的讨论。各种观点的分歧基本上都源于对分派问题的性质认识不清。分派是一种分类学,它是一个相对的概念;当时人的分派固然重要,但不见得比后世人的分派更科学;既应注意分派标准的一致性,也应充分理解分派具有相对性,它往往是从属于特定目的的。简单地否定司马谈的“六家”和刘向父子的“九流十家”,都是没有意义的。<eng>Triggered by the documents unearthed in recent years, the issues concerning the re-classification of the academic schools of Pre-Qin philosophers have generated new discussions among contemporary scholars. This article discusses the inner logic of the views put forward by both Chinese and foreign scholars since Hu Shi (胡适), pointing out that their differences stem from their failure to understand the nature of the classification properly. The classification of academic schools is an issue of taxonomy, and therefore it is also a relative conception. True that the views held by the ancient scholars are important, but their ways of classification are not necessarily more scientific than those put forward by the scholars in later times. Moreover, we should pay attention to the consistency of the criteria for the classification of academic schools, and also fully understand the relativity of the classification which often serves a specific purpose. It is meaningless to simply negate the view of Six Schools of Philosophy by Sima Tan (司马谈) , or the view of Nine or Ten Schools of Philosophy by Liu Xiang (刘向) .