从调节性原则到礼仪构成性规则: 黄勇铜律论的检讨

Huang Yong’s research has achieved two significant accomplishments. First, he has unearthed the ethical resources of the copper rule contained in Taoism and Confucianism, whereas previously people only recognized the golden and silver rules. Second, he has clearly demonstrated certain characteristics that distinguish the copper rule from the golden and silver rules. The golden rule is “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” the silver rule is “Do not do unto others what you do not want done to yourself.” and the copper rule is “Do unto others as they wish to be done to” and “Do not do unto others what they do not want done to themselves.” Huang Yong believes that the copper rule can overcome the inherent problems of the golden and silver rules, making it superior and more suitable as a moral principle for global ethics. This article analyzes Huang Yong’s argumentative strategy, which falls under modern principlism, and finds it unsuccessful because it overlooks an insight from Confucian classical ethics: that the primary guidance for people’s everyday living situations comes not only from general regulative principles but from ritual practices and their constitutive rules. Regulative principles cannot function independently of constitutive rules; rather, they form comprehensive considerations together. This article advocates a shift from a principlist strategy to a “ritual reconstruction” strategy in Confucian ethics.