惠棟論《易》之「大義」與「微言」

Abstract

清乾嘉年間，經學歷經一次典範轉移，從崇尚形而上之學，喜言性命之理，轉向形而下之學，依循由訓詁而探禮制之進路，通經達義。惠棟（1697-1758）正式揭櫫「漢學」之幟，無疑是重要的里程碑。惠氏解《易》，直承兩漢，認為漢儒守家法，猶存聖人「微言」與七十子所傳「大義」。其《易漢學》梳理漢儒《易》學源流，《周易述》則是闡釋古義的新疏，注疏經傳外，並輔以《易微言》和《易大義》等系列著作。標榜「微言」、「大義」以解經，並非始自常州學者，實已蘊含在惠棟「漢學」典範之中。

During the Qian-Jia period, scholarship on the Classics went through a paradigm shift, from concern with metaphysics to concern with character, turning towards more concrete issues, using more linguistic methods and emphasizing rituals. For this direction in scholarship, Hui Dong’s work Yi hanxue, which used the Han Learning methods to interpret the Yijing, is one of the most important works. Hui’s explanation of the Yi, which stemmed directly from the Han, considered that Confucian scholars of that period had absorbed the personal transmission from the masters, which formed a connection to the “great meaning” and “subtle words” of the ancient sages. His earlier work, the Yi hanxue extended the Han Confucian studies of the Yi, whereas the later Zhouyi shu, moved in a new direction, towards the Han attempts to uncover original meanings through new commentaries, which led to Hui’s later works such as the Yi weiyan and the Yi dayi. We can thus see that use of the paired concepts of “great meaning” and “subtle words” was not begun by the Quanzhou scholars, but rather were already present in Hui Dong’s model of Han Learning