孟子“天下之言性也”一章素稱難解,但究竟難在哪裏呢?應當說主要就難在字義的訓解上。正因爲字義難解,所以各種各樣的解釋也就層出不窮。從東漢的趙岐到南宋的朱陸再到當代結合新出土竹簡的各種研究,其結論也可以說是异彩紛呈。實際上,對于這種因字義訓解而來的難題,完全可以從孟子所倡導的“以意逆志”來索解。而從“以意逆志”出發,首先就要抓住其話語背景、思潮氛圍,辨析其基本的思考坐標。從這一角度看,所謂“天下之言性”章不過是孟子對其時代各種人性觀點的一個總體評價而已,這正構成了孟子性善論出場的基本前提,同時也是决定孟子始終不正面言說性善的直接原因。在這一背景下,原本所謂難解的問題也就變得一目了然了。 Mencius, “The Word of the World is also a chapter” is said to be intractable, but exactly where is it difficult? It should be said that it is difficult to interpret the meaning of the word. It is precisely because of the meaning of the word, so a variety of explanations will be endless. From the Zhaoqi in the Eastern Han Dynasty to Zhu Lu in the Southern Song Dynasty to the various contemporary studies on bamboo slips unearthed in the Southern Song Dynasty, the conclusion can also be said to be colorful. In fact, this problem solved by the word meaning can be completely solved by Mencius’s advocacy of retrospection. Starting from “Intention to retrograde”, first of all we must seize the background of its discourse, ideological atmosphere, to analyze its basic thinking coordinates. From this point of view, the so-called “speech of the world” is merely an overall assessment of Mencius’s viewpoints on various human nature of its time. This constitutes the basic premise of Mencius’s theory of goodness, and at the same time decides that Mencius has always been unfavorable The direct reason for saying good. In this context, the so-called problem of the original will become clear at a glance.