论《黄帝四经》对老子“正治”思想的展开

On the Elaboration of Laozi’s Thought of “Upright Governance” in The Four Classics of the Yellow Emperor

摘要: 老子在《道德经》五十七章提出了“以正治国，以奇用兵”的治政思想，然其说简奥，没有过多阐释。黄老学派作为道家重要分支在很大程度上继承了老子的学说。五十七章老子以“道”之特性来诠解治道“正奇”的理论范式，为黄老道家所承继并进行了系统性转化。黄老学派在《黄帝四经》中完成了从老子“清静之正”向“法度之正”的转变：一方面，《黄帝四经》沿袭老子以天道推衍人事的思维进路，将“正”从君主心无为扩展为具有客观法度的政治范畴；另一方面，通过“道生法”的理论建构，《黄帝四经》将“奇”从老子的用兵权变之术转化为法治秩序所防范与的人治私意与过度妄为，从而实现了“治正”从无为到建制的转换。《黄帝四经》此理论的构建，既适应了战国变法图强的现实需求，也为黄老学派的法理思想奠定了基本规模，在中国政治思想史上具有深远意义。

Abstract: Laozi put forward the political governing thought of “governing the state with rectitude, and deploying troops with stratagem” in the 57th chapter of the Tao Te Ching. However, his argument is brief and abstruse, without too much further explanation. As an important branch of Taoism, the Huang-Lao School inherited Laozi’s theory to a great extent. In the 57th chapter of the Tao Te Ching, Laozi interpreted the theoretical paradigm of “rectitude and stratagem” in governing based on the characteristics of “Tao”, which was inherited and systematically transformed by the Huang-Lao Taoism. The Huang-Lao School completed the transformation from Laozi’s “rectitude of tranquility and inaction” to “rectitude of law and institutions” in The Four Classics of the Yellow Emperor. On the one hand, The Four Classics of the Yellow Emperor follows Laozi’s thinking approach of deriving human affairs from the laws of nature, and expands the concept of “rectitude” from the monarch’s inaction of the mind to a political category with objective legal norms. On the other hand, through the theoretical construction of “Tao generates law”, the Four Classics transforms “stratagem” from Laozi’s tactic of contingency in warfare into the arbitrary will of personal rule and excessive recklessness that the rule-of-law order is supposed to prevent and guard against, thus realizing the transformation of “governing with rectitude” from inaction to institutional establishment. The theoretical construction in The Four Classics of the Yellow Emperor not only meets the practical demand of strengthening the state through political reforms during the Warring States Period, but also lays the basic framework for the legal thought of the Huang-Lao School, and has far-reaching significance in the history of Chinese political thought.