儒家德性范畴的现代制度转译 ——以“五常”为中心

中文摘要

传统儒家德性以人格养成为基本载体，具有情境性、关系性与非强制性；现代公共制度则要求规则具有普遍适用、程序可执行和权利边界。二者之间不存在可以直接套用的对应关系。本文在相关研究基础上，将“制度转译”界定为传统德性经过筛选、现代重释、规范限缩与程序嵌入，转化为现代公共规则的过程。文章考察“五常”范畴的形成以及仁、礼、孝在先秦至汉代思想中的结构，进而以公共服务、公共交往规范和养老责任为例，说明德性资源进入制度必须接受公共善增进、个体权利保障与程序正当性三项审查。本文论证认为，儒家德性的现代转化既不能停留于价值相容性的抽象申说，也不能把传统德目直接法律化；它只能是一种受现代权利和程序约束的有限转译。

Abstract

— Traditional Confucian virtues take moral cultivation as their primary vehicle and are contextual, relational, and largely non-coercive, whereas modern public institutions require generally applicable rules, executable procedures, and clearly defined rights boundaries. No direct correspondence can therefore be presumed between virtue concepts and institutional arrangements. Building on modern Confucianism, institutional Confucianism, and studies of ritual order, this article defines institutional translation as a four-stage process: selecting publicizable elements of a virtue, reinterpreting them under modern conditions, limiting their normative scope, and embedding them in procedures. Through three cases—benevolence and public service, ritual propriety and norms of public interaction, and filiality and eldercare—the article argues that any translation must satisfy three tests: contribution to the public good, protection of individual rights, and procedural legitimacy. The modern institutionalization of Confucian virtues is thus neither a direct legal transplantation nor a purely rhetorical claim of compatibility, but a limited translation constrained by rights and procedures.

关键词：儒家；五常；制度转译；德性伦理；现代治理

Keywords: Confucianism; Five Constants; institutional translation; virtue ethics; modern governance